


Compensation

by RobotSquid



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-20
Updated: 2015-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-26 08:43:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2645522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobotSquid/pseuds/RobotSquid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor is a construction worker who just broke his leg on the job and is now living off worker's comp.  Loki is his kind-of-sort-of friend with benefits who is letting him live in his apartment until he gets better.  It's fine though and not weird at all, because they totally don't have a crush on each other.  Also Thor's cat is there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why this ship lends itself so well to AUs but it does, and so here is my offering. It's been in my head for a while so I figured I may as well have some fun with it!

Loki awoke with a sneeze. He forced his eyes open and found, once again, the damn cat’s tail swishing in front of his face. He could not count the amount of times he had been awoken in exactly this manner over the last week. Actually, he could. Today was precisely the sixth morning that Thor’s fat, stupid cat had taken to sleeping on Loki’s chest.

“Get off me,” Loki growled. The cat purred louder and Loki could swear that she actually became heavier. Loki held his breath and balled his hands into fists. The scratches on his arms were the cat’s reminders of what would happen should Loki even think about touching her.

“Mjolnir,” he said. “I can see how you never acquired a single bit of manners in your life, considering who raised you. You probably don’t even realize that this isn’t even your house. You certainly don’t seem to realize that I am not your bed, which is over _there_.” Loki pointed to the small cat bed in the corner of the apartment’s living room.

She stood up, turned around, and laid back down, staring Loki in the face. Her bright blue eyes bore straight into Loki’s skull, and as if in response to his tirade, she reached out with one paw and gently touched him on the cheek.

Loki was fully ready to risk a fresh set of scratches when he heard Thor’s sleepy voice call out from the bedroom.

“Mjolnir? C’mere girl!”

She leapt off Loki’s chest and darted into the open bedroom door. Loki threw the blankets off and immediately got to his feet, stomping into the bedroom— _his_ bedroom.

Thor was lying there—in _Loki’s_ bed, mind you—snuggling with his cat.

“That’s it,” Loki announced. “I’m not doing this anymore. Starting tonight I’m getting my room back and _you_ and your girlfriend can sleep on the couch out there.”

Thor looked up, one hand scratching the underside of Mjolnir’s chin, and frowned. “Loki, I told you that you could have your room back at any time. You’re the one who insisted.”

Loki reached down and picked up Thor’s crutches, propping them back up beside the wall. “I was trying to be a good host, was I not? I’m afraid my good will has run out.” He pointed at the gray cat in Thor’s lap. “Either I get my bed back tonight or I’m picking up a crate for that thing on my way home from work today.”

Mjolnir hissed, the hairs on the back of her spine standing straight up. Loki hissed right back.

“I’m sorry she’s been bothering you, Loki,” Thor said, looking truly apologetic. “She just doesn’t like anybody except me.”

Loki scowled at the cat again and went to Thor’s nightstand. He sighed upon seeing the dish of pills sitting untouched next to an empty glass of water. “Did you really not take your painkillers again?”

“There’s no pain,” Thor insisted, swinging his legs out of bed and putting his good foot down on the floor. He reached for the metal crutches and deftly lifted himself up. “I was going to try to get around without these today.”

“It has been a _week_ since you broke your leg.”

“I twisted my ankle.”

“You fractured bone in five places.”

Thor shrugged. “I don’t feel five fractures.”

“ _Do I need to remind you how high the scaffolding was?_ ” Loki was on the verge of punching him.

Thor deflated a bit and averted his eyes. “No,” he mumbled.

Loki took a deep breath and took the water glass into the kitchen. He refilled it and brought it back, shoving it into Thor’s hands. He watched as Thor begrudgingly downed the prescription medicine, rolling his eyes at the sad puppy eyes Thor was giving him.

“You’re a child,” Loki said, snatching the glass back when he was finished.

Thor only grinned and replied, “Thank you, honey.”

Loki turned a peculiar shade of pink before shouting, “Get out already, I have to get ready for work!”

Moments later, Loki stood in his shower with his forehead pressed against the tiles. He never should have offered for Thor to stay here during his recovery. Thor had plenty of friends who would have been perfectly willing to put him up for however long he needed. Looking back on it, Loki could only say that the whole thing had been a gut reaction. Besides, how could he know that Thor hadn’t subtly planned the whole thing? Nobody had told him to list Loki as an emergency contact at work. Loki hadn’t even told him his last name until a few days before he moved in.

On the other hand, nobody had forced Loki to offer. Nobody had forced him to frantically run out of work and risk being fired once the call had come in from the hospital. Nobody had forced Loki to give up his bed and take the couch for a month or God knew how long, all for the sake of a man that wasn’t even really his boyfriend.

Before Thor showed up, everything had been fine. Loki had his slightly above average-paying job, a cozy apartment just a little bigger than what he needed, and he hadn’t been obligated to speak to or see anybody that he didn’t want to. He’d venture down to the clubs on weekends and hook up with a woman or man for the night, but he had neither the time nor the will to put forth any more effort than that when it came to human interaction.   He’d tried it all before. Boyfriends, girlfriends, hell, he’d even been engaged for a few days once. The initial thrill never lasted as long as Loki hoped.

Then, one day, a giant blond, blue-eyed bear of a man had walked into the office where Loki worked, looking for one of the other insurance brokers. Something about picking up policy papers for his boss. Loki wasn’t going to lie—he’d been intrigued from that first moment. The man was obviously a laborer of some kind, as evidenced by his enormous arms, his tool belt, and his white cotton T-shirt emblazoned with a construction company’s logo. He’d had the shirt tucked in. Loki wasn’t sure why he remembered that.

The man’s visit to the office had been short, as he seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. Nevertheless, on his way out he had shook Loki’s hand and thanked him for his help earlier. His hands had been rough, calloused, and strong, but they had an intoxicating warmth to them. The man had introduced himself as Thor.

Loki had gotten nearly no work done for the rest of that day.

To this day he accused Thor of following him from work to the club that night. How else would he have just _happened_ to run into him that very same day? Thor had claimed that he frequented this club all the time, but Loki had never once seen him there before that day.

Still, Loki was not one to let a good opportunity go by, and a few hours later, they were stumbling into a hotel room down the street. When Loki left before Thor awoke the next morning, he’d fully expected to never see him again.

But Thor kept showing up, every Friday night at the same time, sitting at the barstool in the very center of the bar like an asshole, drinking a glass of whiskey on the rocks and smiling as soon as Loki walked in the door.

For a while, things were regular and without complication. Then one night, Thor had asked him out on a date. Loki, in his infinite stupidity, had agreed.

The night of, Loki had stayed home, gotten drunk, and ignored the calls coming in from Thor’s phone. He still wasn’t sure why. He supposed that at the time he’d gotten scared, or thought it would be funny. After that, Thor didn’t ask again, but the regular hotel visits continued on.

Loki supposed that was when they had finally settled into their current arrangement. They didn’t always see each other on Friday nights at the club, and if they did they didn’t always go back to the hotel together. But they had each other’s cellphone number, and if one of them needed to, they would call the other and they’d meet again at the hotel.

No questions were ever asked. For the longest time Loki hadn’t even realized that Thor spoke with some kind of Nordic accent. He hid it pretty well, but Loki found he rather liked it. They didn’t know each other’s last names, they didn’t ask about family or work or friends. They knew what they wanted from each other, and that was fine for almost four months.

When the call had come from the hospital, Loki had been gripped with a fear he hadn’t known was possible. Thor had fallen off some scaffolding at the construction site; he’d been on the fourth rise up and broken his leg. Loki hadn’t even questioned at the time why he was the one getting the call. He’d barely understood when he heard that he was Thor’s emergency contact. The only thing that he had cared about at the time was ensuring that Thor was all right, that he wasn’t dead or in a coma.

It would clearly take more than a fall like that to kill a man like Thor. And now Loki had him living in his apartment, sleeping in _his_ bed, eating _his_ food, and getting _his_ cat’s hair on everything Loki owned.

Eventually, Loki stepped out of his shower and dressed himself for work. He walked out into the living room to see Thor feeding Mjolnir a can of tuna on top of the kitchen island.

“No cats on my counters,” Loki protested, grasping the cat around her torso and attempting to move her. As if by some feline witchcraft, she completely ignored him and continued to eat her tuna fish, refusing to be budged even an inch to the side.

“Here we go,” Thor said gently, lifting Mjolnir and her can of food up and placing them both gently on the floor. “She would probably like you if you were nicer to her, Loki.”

“I don’t want or need her to like me,” Loki grumbled, reaching for his coffee pot.

“Oh, don’t move that, Loki, I already got it going.”

Loki sighed heavily. “I told you not to touch anything. Will you just sit down please? Where are your crutches? You are _not_ walking without them today, I swear to God, Thor.”

“They’re right here, relax,” Thor said, picking them back up and flashing a grin. He hobbled over to the small dining table off to the side and sat down.

Loki huffed. “What do you want to eat?” he asked, opening his cabinets.

“Cereal is fine.”

“That’s not enough.” Loki glanced at the clock. “I have some time to make you scrambled eggs before I have to leave.”

Thor sighed. “That’s fine.”

“What part of ‘you need to recover from surgery’ do you not understand? This is only going to be dragged out longer if you don’t take care of yourself.”

“I just don’t want to be a bother to you.”

“Well, you’re already here so I think we’re past that.”

A look of genuine hurt flashed into Thor’s eyes, but Loki chose to pretend he hadn’t seen it. He fixed Thor’s bowl of cereal, pouring in a generous amount of the whole milk he’d bought specifically for him, and set it on the table. Thor half-heartedly started in on it as Loki prepared the eggs. Just a bit of salt and cheese, just the way Thor liked it.

By the time it was all finished and the dishes done, Loki realized he hadn’t left enough time to make his own breakfast. Well, it was no big deal. He’d pick something up on the way to work.

“While I’m gone today,” Loki said, pouring coffee and cream into his to-go thermos, “can you please remember to take your medicine? I wrote it all down for you and put it on your nightstand. Percoset at noon, and the anti-inflammatories at three. That’s all you need to do until I get home.”

“Okay,” Thor said, getting back up and making his way over to the door.

Loki squinted at him. “What are you doing? Go sit over on the couch, with all the cat hair you love so much.”

Mjonir hissed again and skittered away to her bed.

“Nothing, I’m just seeing you off.” Thor grinned and reached for the coat closet doorknob.

“ _Stop_ it!” Loki protested, slapping his hand away. “Go sit down! I don’t need you to do anything for me!”

Thor sighed and backed up a step, watching without a word as Loki put on his coat and scarf.

“Have a good day at work, honey,” Thor said cheekily as Loki headed out the door. Loki said nothing, only glared back at him just before he slammed the door shut.

Thor hobbled over to the couch and plopped himself down. Mjolnir meowed noisily and immediately hopped up onto his lap. Thor smiled as he petted her down her spine. She settled in and began to purr.

“Hey girl,” he said softly. “Don’t worry. We’ll get to go home soon.”

He grabbed the remote and started up the Netflix queue. He was itching to get up and do something, go for a run or to the gym or just go for a _walk_ , but he was stuck here for who knew how much longer, immobile and useless on a couch.

He’d been looking so forward to this last job; if all had gone well, and it _would_ have, Thor was ninety-nine percent certain that the promotion would have been his. Now that he was off his feet, off the job, and on worker’s comp, his future in the construction business looked bleak indeed.

The only bright spot in all of this was getting to stay with Loki…though it was more like a burnt out glow-in-the-dark spot. Despite all his fussing at the hospital and eagerness to help the first day or so, it was obvious that Thor had worn out his welcome in record time. Thor would have picked up his stuff and left already if he’d thought he could drive.

Truth be told, he should have known this was a terrible idea, even in the painkiller haze of the hospital room. Loki had made it clear months ago when he stood Thor up on their date that he didn’t want anything more than what they did already. Thor thought that he’d gotten the hint after that. He thought that friends with benefits, or fuckbuddies, or whatever the hell they were would be enough. For a while, it was. It had been a good thing, even. Thor’s friends always told him that he rushed into relationships too quickly without thinking about their longevity. Thor got to sleep with his crush almost anytime he wanted and didn’t even have to remember birthdays. That was good enough, wasn’t it?

He’d added Loki as an emergency contact as a joke, really. Maybe it was manipulative of him. Hoping that maybe if anything happened, it’d give them an excuse to talk. Well, that wasn’t working out the way he’d wanted, was it?

If living with Loki didn’t give him the courage to ask him out again, then it seemed Thor never would.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the sweet messages and positive responses to this so far have been really encouraging! Thank you guys so much for reading, I appreciate it and your feedback so much =)

Loki could barely concentrate on any of his work today. He was supposed to have a quote finished before lunch and he had made no progress on it at all. His own problems were much more pressing, after all. Tomorrow would mark one week since Thor and his stupid cat had moved into his place, and he wasn’t sure he could handle it much longer. Maybe tonight he actually would kick Thor out of his bedroom and force him onto the couch. Loki hadn’t gotten any decent sleep for days, and he deserved to have his own bed back.

Then again, Loki’s couch was tiny and Thor was huge. What if he rolled off the sofa in his sleep? What if he landed right on his broken leg, or even on the damn cat? Then everything would be worse, and he wouldn’t get Thor out of his house any sooner.

He sat back in his chair and sighed heavily. All of this was the worst decision he had ever made in his life. He had never once been so inconvenienced. This was why he didn’t do relationships anymore. It meant giving up everything comfortable and normal and for what? For another person? No, that wasn’t worth it in the slightest.

“Hey Loki,” came a voice. Loki looked up and saw Clint staring at him from across the room. “I’m going to get some coffee, do you want anything?”

“Sure,” Loki conceded. “You know what I like.”

“Uhh…dark roast with double espresso shot?”

“You always did have an impeccable memory.”

Clint grinned and walked over to his desk. “Are you okay? You’ve seemed off all week.”

Loki sighed again and clicked his pen a few times. “I haven’t been sleeping well.”

“Well, Natasha and I are going out tonight, do you want to come?”

Loki gave Clint a look. The man had been working here about a year less than Loki himself, and to be honest he wasn’t half bad at the job. Loki tolerated him a bit more than any of his other co-workers, which made them as good as friends. Clint’s girlfriend—or roommate, or whatever the hell, Loki never could really figure it out—Natasha was a police officer and no matter what their relationship was, Clint was head over heels for her. They had propositioned Loki for a threesome once and although Loki had declined, ever since that moment he’d felt a distinct fondness for the couple.

“No. Thank you, but no,” Loki said, rubbing his temples. “I’ve got to get home and fix dinner for Thor.”

“Thor?” Clint repeated, and Loki cursed himself mentally. Why had he let that slip? “Did you get a dog or something?”

“…You could say that.”

Clint smiled. “That’s a cute name for a dog. What breed is it?”

“…Golden retriever.”

“Ah, those are the best. Nat wants one of those big, uh….” Clint held his hands out apart from each other. “You know, big Samoyed dogs, with all that white hair? Thinking about getting her one for Christmas. But anyway, let me go get that coffee. Maybe it’ll wake you up.”

“Thank you, Clint.” Loki watched him go and tried to suppress yet another sigh. He jiggled the mouse on his mousepad and figured he could at least open up a website or two to start this damn quote.

\---

Thor looked up at the clock. “Whoops, it’s 1,” he said. Mjolnir mewled and rolled over on his lap. “I was supposed to take those painkillers an hour ago. Let’s go, girl.” She leapt onto the floor as Thor raised himself up on his crutches. He made his way into the bedroom and found the orange pill bottle on the nightstand by the bed.

Just as he was about to grab the bottle, he looked around and saw the state of disarray that Loki’s bedroom was in. He cringed; when had it gotten this messy? Thor’s suitcase was propped up against one wall, his clothes thrown carelessly beside it, some dirty clothes on top of clean ones. The bed was a mess and hadn’t been made once since he’d arrived. The whole room had Thor’s stuff all over it, and for whatever reason, he was just now noticing.

“This isn’t very good houseguest behavior, is it, girl?” he asked Mjolnir, who jumped up on the bed and purred. “I should at least try to clean up.”

Mjolnir turned over and growled a bit, and Thor could swear she was staring right at his crutches. He smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. We’ll start small.”

After about an hour and a lot of awkward maneuvering, Thor managed to arrange his clothes into dirty and clean, and he even got the dirty clothes into a hamper. He made the bed, though it could do with some extra smoothing down, and picked up all the trash by the nightstand.

Next was the living room, which was slightly better, but not by much. There was more trash to pick up, for one thing, and about five water glasses laying around that hadn’t been washed since Thor got there. If Thor thought he could manage the vacuum cleaner, he would have vacuumed around the couch, but even he had to admit that wasn’t exactly wise. He did, however, manage to clean Mjolnir’s litter box, though not without great effort.

By the time he made it into the kitchen, he realized just how hungry he was. After making himself a sandwich and giving Mjolnir another can of tuna (“You can eat on the counter this one time, just don’t tell Loki”), Thor perused the fridge for another small snack. He wondered what Loki had planned for dinner tonight.

One thing he’d certainly learned about Loki since living here was that he was a fantastic cook. Thor couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten such amazing food. Even something as simple as chicken seemed to sing with flavor when Loki made it. Thor wasn’t half bad at cooking himself—he’d been a bachelor for many years, after all—but Loki was on a whole other level. Judging by what was in the fridge, it looked like Loki planned to cook fish tonight.

Thor closed the fridge and searched the various papers stuck to the door. There wasn’t much here, just Loki’s work schedule and reminders to himself of what he needed at the store and a list of Thor’s medications. Thor was certain that he’d seen Loki consult the fridge door for that night’s meals however…ah, there it was.

“Miso glazed salmon with pureed edamame,” Thor read. He grinned. “That sounds amazing.”

Mjolnir meowed.

“I’m sorry, girl, I don’t think I’ll be able to save any for you this time.”

She growled and slinked away to her bed.

Thor figured the recipe had to be in one of Loki’s many cookbooks, and after about twenty minutes of searching, he finally found it in an old magazine tucked away near the back of the bookcase.

\---

It smelled like snow outside. Loki cringed and wrapped his scarf once more around his neck as he stepped outside. He didn’t normally mind the cold, but as for why it was below freezing temperatures _already_ was beyond him. He wasn’t nearly dressed warmly enough for this.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna come out tonight, Loki?” Clint asked, pulling on his gloves. “Last chance.” He flashed a smile.

“No thank you,” Loki grumbled. “I really just want to go home and try to relax.” _However unlikely that may be…._

Clint shrugged. “At least you can snuggle with your new dog. See you Monday.”

Loki rolled his eyes and walked over to his car. He sat there for a minute with the engine running, waiting for it to warm up, and immediately regretted not going out with Clint. Maybe he would have found somebody else to spend the night with instead of going back home to deal with Thor and Mjolnir. It honestly sounded less stressful at this point. Maybe if Loki didn’t come home tonight, Thor would get the hint that Loki’s entire life didn’t—and shouldn’t—revolve all around him and his needs, broken leg or no. Maybe it would make Thor leave.

“That’d be nice, wouldn’t it,” Loki muttered under his breath as he put the car in reverse. Almost as soon as he said it, he felt a deep, empty pang of sadness fill him up inside. For an instant, he believed that for the rest of his life, he would be alone.

Tonight was starting to sound like an entire-bottle-of-white-wine night.

\---

Mjolnir’s ears perked up and she hissed at the door seconds before Thor heard the footsteps coming down the hall. When the key jiggled in the lock, she leapt off Thor’s lap and dove for her bed.

“I’m home!” Loki called, entering the apartment among a cacophony of jingling keys and the thud of his briefcase on the floor. Mjolnir hissed from across the room.

“Welcome back, Loki,” Thor said, lifting himself upright on his crutches. He had been watching the weather just before Loki got home; they were calling for a chance of early snow tonight, and Thor had been a little worried. Loki’s tiny car couldn’t possibly be good for driving in freezing temperatures. “Good day at work?”

“Horrible day,” Loki replied, shrugging off his coat and scarf and stuffing them in his closet. “I spent hours putting together an amazing policy for a man I’ve been in contact with since last Tuesday, and as soon as I find the perfect fit, it turns out he’s decided to go with another broker. Well, _fuck_ you too, sir, it’s not like I could have been using my time productively or anything.” He slammed the closet door shut and began to loosen his tie.

Thor followed him into the bedroom. “Well, I’m sure he was still grateful for your help,” he offered.

“People are only grateful for results, not effort,” Loki said, throwing his tie onto the bed. He paused a minute, and then looked over the entire room. “…Did I…I don’t remember making the bed this morning….”

“I did,” Thor said with a huge smile. “I cleaned up in here.”

“You didn’t!” Loki exclaimed. He stomped out into the living room. “It’s clean in here too!” he called back in distress.

“I felt bad about making such a mess.” Thor shuffled his way into the room and saw Loki staring in complete disbelief at his surroundings. Somehow, this wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. “So I cleaned up a little…to surprise you.”

“I told you to rest!” Loki rounded on Thor and actually looked…upset? “What if you had fallen over, Thor!? Do you think your cat would have dialed 911 for you? What if you had hit your head or dropped something on your cast or hurt yourself!? Did you have a plan for all that? Were you going to crawl your way over to the phone and call me and make me leave work again to come save you?”

Thor had nothing to say to that. He had expected that Loki would be annoyed to find out what he’d done, but angry? And _this_ angry? It didn’t make any sense. Thor deflated under Loki’s furious green-eyed stare.

“I’m sorry, Loki,” he mumbled. “I really am.”

“Why don’t you take better care of yourself!?” Loki demanded. “Do you ever think of how _I_ would feel if you got hurt again!?”

Thor’s eyes widened. Now that had taken him off guard. For several long, silent seconds they didn’t say anything at all; Thor looked into Loki’s eyes and saw a faint glimmer of wetness in them. Almost immediately, Loki turned away.

“Please, just…just don’t worry about it being messy in here, or if you’re doing enough, or anything,” Loki said, running his hands through his hair. “You’re fine, okay? You don’t have to do anything for me.”

If Thor had use of both his legs, he would have run over and grabbed Loki up in a hug. Loki hadn’t been angry after all, he was just worried. Maybe even a little scared. One didn’t worry over a person that they felt nothing for. Maybe there was some part of Loki that wanted the same thing Thor did. It was a small, small sliver of hope, but Thor was willing to go after it.

“Okay,” Thor said aloud, his smile growing bigger. “I’ll be more careful.”

“Thank you.” Loki went into the kitchen and opened up the fridge. He frowned, reached in and pulled out a small Ziploc bag of liquid. “What is this?”

“Oh….” Thor made his way over to the dining table and sat down, propping his crutches against the wall. “I saw what you were planning for dinner tonight, and I thought if I made the whole meal you’d be upset, so I just made the glaze for you. I swear that’s all I did.”

Loki looked up, then back down to the bag, and up at Thor again, and then sighed heavily. Thor could swear he physically saw the stress leaving Loki’s body. Loki set the bag on the counter. “Thank you,” he muttered, small like a child being forced to say so by his parents.

“You’ve really done a lot for me,” Thor blurted out. “And I appreciate it. You work so much already, and you always come home so stressed, so…I figured, as long as I’m here, maybe I can take care of you while you’re taking care of me.”

Loki sniffed but didn’t look Thor in the eye. Thor could see the pink blush creeping up Loki’s pale cheeks, and he smiled. Loki went to the fridge and pulled out a chilled bottle of chardonnay, then dug through his drawers for a wine opener. He set them both on the table in front of Thor.

“You know how to open that, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but….” Thor frowned. “I don’t remember the recipe calling for white wine….”

“It’s not for the recipe, Thor,” Loki said, placing two wine glasses on the table. “It’s for you and me while I cook.” Loki stepped back and eyed Thor nervously. “You do like white wine, don’t you?”

“I mean, it’s not my favorite but—”

“That’s a yes.” Loki turned away again and pulled the salmon out of the fridge. “Pour me a little extra, will you?”

Thor grinned. “Sure thing, honey.”

“Shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for fun: the salmon recipe in this chapter is actually a thing my mom makes and it's so good omg <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Domestic AUs are going to be the death of me.

“That was amazing,” Thor declared as Loki gathered up their dishes. “Can I have the recipe for that when I leave?”

“If you want it,” Loki said, depositing their plates into the dishwasher. He reached for the other various dirty dishes strewn about the kitchen and dumped them into the sink.

“Hey, let me do that.” Thor began to lift himself up on his crutches.

“ _No_ ,” replied Loki immediately, his green eyes flashing. “It’s fine. Just sit down.”

Begrudgingly, Thor obeyed him. He sat there silently for a while, watching Loki wordlessly scrub all his dishes to sparkling perfection. Thor wracked his brain for something to talk about. Their dinner had been somewhat quiet, despite all of Thor’s attempts to open up a conversation. If he knew Loki better, he probably would have been able to tell what he was thinking about, or maybe how he was feeling. But there was no hint of anything in Loki’s face.

“Sooo…where did you learn to cook so well?” Thor asked. “From your mother?”

“My mother died when I was young,” Loki replied nonchalantly. “I used to work as a line cook.”

“Oh.” Thor deflated. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know….”

“Sorry for what? It wasn’t a terrible job.”

“No, I mean about your mother.”

“Oh, that. Don’t worry about it, I don’t even remember her.” Loki picked up a towel and began drying his hands.

Thor sighed and looked to the window. Immediately, he perked up. “Oh, Loki, look! It’s snowing.” He got to his feet and made his way over to the window. It was a soft, small snowfall, but the kind that would surely continue through the night and into the morning. If anything, Thor was glad that it was happening now, on a Friday, and Loki wouldn’t have to drive anywhere in the snow tomorrow.

Loki sidled up beside him. “Hmm,” he said, a faint smile on his lips. “Looks nice.”

“Makes it feel kind of cozy inside, doesn’t it?”

Loki turned and saw Thor smiling at him. He flushed bright pink and turned away. “All the more reason you need to be resting. I can’t drive you to the ER if this gets bad.”

“Fair enough. I’ll be extra careful.”

There was a loud meow from in the kitchen. Loki whirled around and shouted, “ _Get off my counter!_ ”

Mjolnir crouched by the sink, following the lingering scent of salmon in the air.

“Go _away_!” Loki walked over and slammed his hand down on the counter. Mjolnir jumped and skittered away, disappearing down the hallway.

“If we get snowed in and run out of food she’s the first one to go,” Loki growled.

“Nah, you don’t want to eat her,” replied Thor, moving away from the window and settling down onto the couch. “She’s gotten kind of fat. Too much gristle.”

Loki huffed and grabbed the bottle of chardonnay. He refilled his wine glass and threw the empty bottle away.

“I’m going to go get pajamas on,” he announced. “Don’t forget, I’m taking my room back tonight.”

“That’s fine.” Thor turned the TV on, switching to weather reports to see how much accumulation they were calling for. It looked like the weather was already pretty bad west of here, and they were expecting the city to be hit hard tomorrow evening. They were suggesting everybody prepare to at least lose power for a little while.

“Loki,” he called. “Maybe we should think about trying to go buy some extra food tomorrow, just in case.”

“What’s this ‘we’?” Loki replied, sticking his head out of his bedroom door and frowning. “If we need food then I’ll go. Crutches and snow do not go together, Thor.”

“But I want to go outsiiiide,” Thor whined, exaggerating as best he knew how.

“I’d be more than happy to kick you into the street right now if you like.”

Thor laughed. “Fine, fine.” He looked over to the right of the TV at Loki’s fireplace. He had a sudden image flash into his head, of snow falling down outside the window burying the city into a standstill, of the two of them in front of Loki’s lit fireplace, of Loki cuddling happily in Thor’s arms while they shared a drink, of everything between them being perfect and normal.

The couch dipped down with the added weight of Loki plopping down beside him, jolting Thor out of his reverie. Loki reached for the remote and immediately switched channels.

“There better be something good on,” Loki sighed, finding fault with everything in less than three seconds before flipping the channel again.

“If not, there’s plenty of movies on Netflix,” Thor suggested. “That might even be more fun.”

Loki shook his head. “I don’t want to watch anything long. I’m pretty tired, I just need to see something mindless for a little while.” He eventually settled on HGTV, which was showing some kind of home improvement show. The episode was already about fifteen minutes in, but from what Thor could tell, it was following a newlywed couple who were doing their first home project together.

“Ugh,” Loki said, sipping his wine. “How the hell does he think that that wood goes with that tile? He should have listened to his wife when she told him that earlier.”

“Yeah, and that’s a really shitty brand of tile too,” Thor agreed. “We never use it if we can help it.”

Loki glanced at him sideways. “I didn’t realize you did interior.”

“Sometimes. Depends on the job. I mean, it’s not my favorite part. Laying tile is a bitch, let me tell you.”

Loki sighed. “Why do they give people like this airtime? They have no idea what they’re doing. Why can’t they come give _me_ a hundred thousand dollars to redo my house?”

“I don’t know, but maybe then you could afford a guest room.”

Thor laughed as Loki punched him in the arm, his eyes blazing. “Keep that up and you don’t get any blankets.”

“What would you even do with this place if you redid it?” Thor glanced around the apartment. “I think it’s perfect just the way it is.”

“Honestly, if I had my way I wouldn’t even live in this city at all.” Loki took another sip of wine.

Thor’s heart jumped into his throat. “What do you mean?” he asked coolly. “You want to move?”

“I wish I lived in the country. This place drives me crazy.”

“Hmm.” There was some silence, broken only by a few more of Loki’s cutting remarks at the TV.

“So, um,” Thor ventured, “are you…looking to move anytime soon?”

“I was hoping sometime next year, but who knows. I barely have any time to go out and look at houses.”

Thor hadn’t even suspected that Loki might not enjoy living here. Thor loved this city, and he couldn’t imagine ever leaving, but…if Loki weren’t here….

Loki picked up the remote and turned off the TV as the show ended. He stood up and grabbed his empty wine glass. “I’m going to go get you some blankets and pillows,” he announced after leaving the glass on the kitchen counter.

“All right,” Thor replied, his mind elsewhere.

“Why don’t you go get your pajamas on while I get the couch ready for you?”

“Okay.”

Mjolnir eagerly followed Thor into the bedroom. Thor closed the door behind him and dug out his pajamas—which was really just an old T-shirt and flannel pants—then sat on the edge of the bed and began to maneuver his way out of his clothes. Mjolnir jumped up and cuddled into his arm affectionately.

“I see you, girl,” Thor said, scratching her head. “I’ll be out in the living room with you tonight, so you’ll stop bothering Loki.”

Mjolnir purred and snuggled into Thor harder.

“I wish you’d be nicer to him. I know you don’t like new places but he’s been very generous to us. I wish there was some way I could make you understand that.”

Mjolnir hopped off the bed as Thor pulled the T-shirt over his head. He tossed his clothes into the hamper from where he sat and hoisted himself up on his crutches. He winced as he stood upright. His leg was throbbing just a bit more intensely than usual.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Thor called as he came out into the living room. Loki was just finishing up arranging the blankets on the couch. Mjolnir leapt up onto the pillows and proceeded to make herself as comfortable as possible, earning herself a glare from Loki but nothing else.

“I’m gonna put your pills on the coffee table here,” said Loki, going into the kitchen for a glass of water. “Please don’t forget to take them before you fall asleep.”

“I think I’m gonna take them now, to be honest,” Thor replied, settling down on the couch. There was complete silence from the kitchen; Thor turned around and saw Loki staring wide-eyed at him.

“Why, what’s wrong?” Loki asked. “Are you all right?”

Thor laughed. “I’m fine, my leg just hurts more than usual. I’m just saying I’m not going to forget.”

“Do you want me to call your doctor and see if you’re allowed to take two painkillers at once?”

“That’s not necessary, Loki, but thank you. One should do it.”

“Okay.” Loki almost ran into the bedroom to grab Thor’s pill bottle and was at his side with the pills and water in an instant.

“Thank you, honey,” Thor said with a wink, downing the pill and half the glass of water. Loki didn’t even react to the term he usually hated so much.

“Are you sure that’s enough?” Loki asked. “I’m serious, now. I don’t want to be woken up in the middle of the night if you’re moaning in agony.”

“It’s fine, Loki! Please don’t worry.”

Loki watched his face in silence for a few seconds before gesturing to the glass of water. “Can you finish that, please?”

Thor groaned but complied. Loki took the glass to the kitchen to refill it, then set it back on the coffee table and handed Thor the remote. “Try to get some sleep, okay?”

“I will. Thank you, Loki.”

Loki stood there for a moment, contemplating something deeply. His lips moved a few times, as if about to speak, but in the end he just nodded. He crossed the living room to go turn out the lights.

“Goodnight, Thor,” Loki said. “I guess, just…try not to need anything.” And then he disappeared into his bedroom and shut the door.

Despite the medication, Thor wasn’t sleepy at all for the next few hours. He kept the TV on, with the volume down low, mindlessly petting Mjolnir as she rested on his chest. He found himself continuing to watch HGTV; it seemed like everything they were playing tonight involved newlyweds and their houses in some way. Thor counted maybe two gay couples out of the bunch, and there was even one man that reminded him of Loki. Not in his appearance or demeanor, but rather in the facial expressions he would shoot his husband every time he suggested something ridiculous. It made Thor smile, despite himself.

Eventually the show ended and Thor switched back over to the weather. Now they were calling for even more snow. Thor sat up and twisted his upper body around to glance out the window and saw the snow piling up faster than he’d expected. He frowned. His fantasy of being snowed in with Loki was just that, a fantasy. But what if the weather actually did keep them sequestered here for a few days or more?

He then watched several news reports showing that people were already starting to lose power in the city, there had been several accidents on the highway, and even a fatality as somebody’s car had skidded off the road into a ditch. Fear welled up inside Thor. Loki’s car was too small for weather like this. What if something like that happened to him if he went out tomorrow? Maybe Thor could call a friend and get them to bring some tire chains over, and then Thor could put them on Loki’s car for him first thing tomorrow morning, just to be sure….

His leg throbbed uncomfortably. Thor winced and adjusted his position. When it didn’t alleviate the pain, he sat up entirely—which Mjolnir did not approve of—and reversed his position on the couch. Now he could see through Loki’s giant window at the snow gently and quietly burying the city in ice. Still, his leg was uncomfortable. What’s more, it seemed to be getting worse.

Thor tried finding something more light-hearted to watch, and settled on a channel that was playing Robocop—for whatever reason, it being almost two in the morning. Okay, maybe it wasn’t exactly light-hearted, but it got his mood off the weather.

The pains in his leg continued. Thor grunted and tried to ignore it. Mjolnir nuzzled his face and meowed worriedly.

“It’s okay, girl,” he said softly, petting her back. “I’m all right.”

Mjolnir touched his face with her paw and he laughed. “You’re a good girl, Mjolnir.” He turned the volume on the TV down even more and snuggled under the blanket. He shut his eyes and tried to sleep, listening to the faint sounds of Robocop in the background.

Next thing he knew, there was the sound of shattering glass and Loki’s enraged cry of, “ _Get away you stupid cat!!_ ”

Thor shot upright. “Loki, what’s wrong?!” he shouted, disoriented. “Are you all right?”

“I’m _fine_ ,” Loki growled. “I swear to _God_ , Thor, your cat _looked me in the eye_ and pushed that glass off the counter! _Do you want to go to the pound you little bitch!?_ ”

Thor heard Mjolnir’s characteristic hiss from somewhere in the house.

“I’m so sorry, Loki,” Thor said, swinging his legs over the side of the couch. He winced and just barely bit back a yelp. His leg pain was ten times worse than it had been last night. “I really am. I’m gonna pay you back for all the damage she’s done, I promise.”

“Don’t bother,” Loki snapped. “Just don’t even bother!”

Thor reached for his crutches and tried to lift himself up. As soon as he was up, the pain in his leg shot down from his hip down to his foot and this time he couldn’t keep himself from crying out. He plopped back down onto the couch. “Ugh…Loki…can you—”

“What’s that, Thor?” Loki asked. “Hold on, let me clean this glass up.”

“My pills, please….”

“What?”

“Can I have my painkillers, please!?”

Thor heard the sound of what he assumed was a broom being dropped and Loki was immediately at his side. “What’s wrong, are you all right?”

“I’m fine, I just….” Thor winced. “I need the Percocet, please.”

“Okay. Okay, just hold on.” Loki dashed into his room where the painkillers were kept and grabbed Thor’s glass from last night off the coffee table. He was back at Thor’s side in fewer than thirty seconds, thrusting everything into his hands.

“Thank you.” Thor downed the pill as quickly as he could. As far as he was concerned, it couldn’t work fast enough.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Loki asked, crouching down by the sofa, one of his hands opening and closing into a fist. “Do you want to go to the ER?”

“That’s not it.” Thor shook his head. “I think it just…you were right. I shouldn’t have moved around so much yesterday.”

“You’re right you shouldn’t have! Now look at you! Here, Thor, I’ll get you a second pill—”

“I don’t need a second pill. Let me just see how this one is gonna work.”

“Lie back down. I’ll make you breakfast and you can eat it here.” Loki stood up again and headed to the kitchen. “Just don’t get anything on the floor, or so help me….”

Thor looked out the window at the city. He couldn’t see the street from here, but he could see the roof of the building across the street, and there was a sizable amount of snow there. The TV had turned off sometime during the night because of the sleep function, but he reached for the remote and clicked through to the weather report.

Nearly two feet of snow had fallen in the city overnight. The highways were a mess. The police and fire department were suggesting everybody stay in if they could help it. There were already three more casualties as a result of cars skidding on ice.

“Good thing it’s the weekend,” Thor called into the kitchen.

Loki turned and glanced at the TV. “It’s looking to be a long weekend if this keeps up,” he replied.

Despite everything, Thor felt his heart skip a beat, and he grinned.

Shortly afterwards, Loki came over to the couch with a cup of coffee and freshly made scrambled eggs. “Here,” he said, placing a dishtowel over Thor’s lap.

“Thanks, honey,” Thor said.

“Would you _please_ stop calling me that?” Loki bit back. “I’m not your damn husband.”

“But you’re my Loki.” Thor flashed the cutest smile he could manage.

“Keep that up and you’re gonna have two broken legs.” Loki scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. “Seriously, I don’t know what you think this is, but I’m doing this for you out of the goodness of my own heart. I’m not your ‘honey’, I’m not your ‘sweetheart’, and I sure as hell am not your boyfriend.”

“I know that,” Thor replied, feeling his heart sink a bit. “Believe me, I know that.”

“So cut it out, all right? I’m helping you because without me you’d have fallen down the stairs by now.”

“Is that the only reason?”

There was an instant of tense silence between them. Thor kept his eyes on Loki’s face, and he could barely detect a bit of pink in his cheeks.

“Yes,” Loki said, his expression unreadable. “That is the only reason.” A pause. “And I suppose there’s no real reason why I was your emergency contact, is there?”

_There was a reason_ , Thor thought to himself. Outwardly, he shrugged. “I don’t think it matters now.” He took hold of the fork and began to eat, only to realize halfway through the first bite that he had no appetite whatsoever. If anything, he felt a bit nauseous.

Loki huffed and headed back into the kitchen to clean up. Thor set the plate down and rested his head in his hands. The room was spinning. He felt as though he could throw up without any warning.

_I can’t be sick on Loki’s carpet. He’ll kill me._ Thor lifted his head and reached for his crutches again. Weakly, he raised himself up and began to head towards the hallway bathroom.

“Sit down, Thor,” Loki said, his back to the living room as he washed the frying pan. “We’re not doing this today.”

“Hold on…” Thor replied, beads of sweat beginning to break out across his forehead. He threw open the door to the hallway bathroom and made his way over to the toilet. He could already feel his vision blurring and his one good leg start to shake.

“Thor?” came Loki’s distant voice. Thor barely heard him. He tossed his crutches aside and tried to sit on the floor in front of the toilet. His scant breakfast was going to come up any second.

The tile of the bathroom floor, however, was slippery, and Thor was still wearing socks. Before he could get himself into a good position, he slipped, mistakenly put all his weight on his bad leg to try to steady himself, and fell. His head struck the bathroom rug, which while it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, still hurt like hell, and he groaned loudly.

“Thor!?” Loki called again, more frantic this time. Thor heard his footsteps running across the living room.

Thor’s stomach lurched, and he sat upright just in time to lose his breakfast into the toilet. It was disgusting and painful and embarrassing, but there was no stopping it now. He could hear Loki coming into the room and Mjolnir meowing from somewhere far away, but besides the violent sickness he was feeling right now he was aware of very little else.

After what felt like an eternity, the sickness abated, and Thor could breathe again. His forehead and the back of his neck were coated in sweat, and the pain in his leg had increased tenfold. He felt a light touch on his neck, and heard the muffled sound of Loki’s voice.

Thor closed his eyes and fainted.


	4. Chapter 4

For an instant, Loki didn’t even realize what had happened. He sat there, motionless on the floor, staring at Thor’s limp body. Mjolnir pawed anxiously at Thor’s face, meowing loudly, darting from side to side in distress.

“Move,” Loki said, softly at first, and then, “ _MOVE_!”

He swatted at the empty air in front of Mjolnir, and for once she did not hiss at him. Instead, she only meowed louder, placing both her paws on Thor’s wide chest. Loki reached for Thor’s head and placed it gently in his lap, patting lightly at his cheeks.

“Hey,” he said, his heart racing so quickly his chest hurt. “Thor! Thor please, please, come on, open your eyes….”

If he stayed unconscious for much longer, then Loki would really have cause to worry. Agonizingly, slowly, he counted the seconds, blocking out Mjolnir’s sad meows.

“Thor!” Loki shouted, louder. He began to panic in earnest. Thor had a concussion or something, or maybe blood was pooling from his brain into his skull, maybe he was already dead—

A faint groan elicited a set of louder meows from Mjolnir. She hopped over and around Thor’s body, pawing at him and mewing. “Ow…” Thor whined softly.

“Oh my god…oh my god,” Loki breathed, touching Thor’s cheeks with shaking hands. “Are you okay? Thor, please….”

Thor grunted and tried to touch his left temple, where a bruise was already forming. “Did I pass out?” he asked. He looked around the room, then his eyes focused on Loki. “I didn’t throw up on your rug, did I?”

Loki closed his eyes and sighed, willing his heartrate to slow down. It was fine, it was all fine, Thor was back, he was here, he was okay….

“No,” Loki replied, brushing a bit of hair out of Thor’s eyes. “No, you made it in time.”

Thor grinned and hefted himself up to a sitting position. Mjolnir jumped into his lap and meowed sadly.

“I’m sorry girl, did I scare you?” Thor asked, scratching behind her ears.

“ _I’m_ fine too, thanks for asking,” Loki huffed, getting to his feet and picking up Thor’s crutches.

“You weren’t worried about me, were you?” Thor asked with a teasing smile.

“Not even a little. I’m just not in the mood to clean up blood today when I just washed this bathroom the other day.”

Thor had been here a week and knew for a fact that Loki had done no such thing.

“Let me help you up,” Loki said, reaching out his hand. With some maneuvering and effort—Loki guessed that Thor had to weigh nearly twice as much as him, after all—Loki managed to get Thor upright. Using only one crutch and Loki as support, the two of them got him back out into the living room and on the couch.

“You’ll need another painkiller after that,” Loki remarked, heading into the kitchen for the pill bottle. “Try not to throw this one up, okay? You’ve got to make these last at least through the weekend.”

“I’m sorry, Loki.” Thor accepted the new pill and water, though it was unpleasant to get down. “How many pills are left?”

“Only four. We’ll have to wait until Monday to see if we can get you another prescription.”

Thor winced inwardly, rubbing the side of his leg. He hadn’t admitted it to Loki, but the pain was getting worse each day. Probably due in no small part to his own restlessness and refusal to stay still. He didn’t want to worry Loki over it, especially not after he’d just fainted.

_That was_ really _smooth, by the way_ , he thought to himself. _I’m sure Loki is just swooning over_ that _little display._

“Here, lay down,” Loki said, coming over to the couch with a wet washcloth. Thor begrudgingly complied and Loki laid the cool cloth over his forehead.

“Aaaah, thank you,” Thor sighed. “That feels great.”

“Just lay like that for a while. I’m going to make myself some breakfast, so just call if you need me. But try not to need me.”

“Thank you, hon—I mean, thank you, Loki.”

Loki glared for a minute but said nothing, and then he was gone from Thor’s field of vision. Mjolnir curled up on Thor’s stomach.

He closed his eyes and tried to sleep. For a while there was nothing but the sound of Loki moving about in the kitchen, cooking food, opening a newspaper and turning the pages, then the smell of coffee, and the sound of dishes being washed. Thor pretended to be asleep when Loki walked past the couch on his way to his bedroom. He heard the shower come on and was suddenly overcome with guilt.

_Maybe I should call somebody to come pick me up and take me home. Sif might do it, if she’s back from her vacation…Volstagg can’t do it, his son is sick…Fandral doesn’t have a car…Hogun’s just going to make fun of me if I ask…. This was a terrible idea. I’m just taking up space and causing trouble for him. I can’t even do something simple like make my own food. This is a disaster…why would he ever want to date me now, after all of this…?_

He remembered back to the night they were supposed to have a proper date. Thor had felt something for Loki ever since he first saw him. It might not have been love—truth be told, at first he thought Loki was just hot—but it had been something nonetheless. Something that kept Loki on his mind all the time. He had never expected to sleep with Loki just hours after first meeting him. But that hadn’t been enough. Some days, he wished it had been.

It took weeks for Thor to muster up the courage to ask him out. By that time they had already met and had sex in that nice hotel room four or five times. He’d saved up some extra money to take Loki somewhere nice. He’d managed to subtly ask Loki what sort of food was his favorite so he could pick out the perfect restaurant for dinner. He’d gotten reservations, gotten a nice-but-not-too-nice outfit…he’d planned everything.

Saturday at seven o’clock. That had been the plan. Loki had said yes. That was when they first exchanged phone numbers. Thor had texted him on his lunch break that day to say he was looking forward to it. Loki had replied that he was too. Did he want Thor to pick him up? No, that wasn’t necessary, he’d meet him at the restaurant.

Thor arrived at six-thirty. He was earlier than he’d planned on, but the idea of being late was maddening to him. So he’d be okay with waiting for a while.

He sat in his car for a bit, nervous as hell but receiving encouraging texts from Sif. At around five minutes to seven, he walked in and told the hostess that he was there and would be waiting at the bar for the other person to show. Sure, she’d said. That was fine.

Thor didn’t want to drink too much before Loki arrived so he just ordered a soda. When he was tipsy and nervous at the same time, he tended to say regrettable things. Once it got to be 7:10, the hostess asked if he was ready to be seated. Thor told her no, he was still waiting, but he’d call to see how close his friend was.

Loki’s phone rang a few times and then went right to voicemail. Thor double-checked to make sure it was the right number. He sent a few texts. _Hey, everything all right? Are you stuck in traffic?_

7:20, and no answer. Thor ordered a whiskey on the rocks from the bar. His text message sound beeped. It was just Sif, asking how things were going. Thor didn’t have the heart to answer her.

7:35, and the hostess came to check on him again. She looked worried, asking if his companion had arrived yet. Thor tried to smile and tell her it was all right. She said she’d hold the table for as long as she could.

By 7:45, Thor had left three messages and sent about five texts. Part of him wanted to just be worried that Loki was stuck in traffic or in a ditch somewhere, but in his heart Thor knew that wasn’t true. Loki wasn’t coming. He just straight up wasn’t coming.

He waited at the bar until 8:30 anyway. He paid for his drink and went to leave. The hostess looked heartbroken.

“You don’t have to hold the table anymore,” he told her. “Thank you, though.”

“I’m so sorry, sir.”

He sat in his car for about another fifteen minutes afterward, contemplating whether to text Loki that he was going home, whether to text Sif and tell her what happened, whether to talk to anybody at all. In the end he just texted Loki one last thing.

_Never mind._

He drove to the nearest supermarket and used the money he was going to spend on dinner to buy two 12-packs of beer, then went home.

Sometime later, Thor opened his eyes and realized he’d drifted off to sleep. The TV was off and the light coming in through the windows was different. Brighter. Thor pulled the washcloth from his forehead and checked his watch. One o’clock. Well, he hadn’t slept all that long.

He pushed himself up to a sitting position and heard a faint meow.

“Whoops, sorry, I didn’t see you there, girl,” Thor apologized, extending a hand to Mjolnir. She nuzzled her head into his palm and moved from his chest to his lap. Thor looked across the room and saw Loki sitting at the kitchen table, typing away at his laptop.

“Good morning again,” Loki said, not looking up. “Feeling better?”

Thor’s heart sank. He couldn’t say why. “Yeah, a little.” He coughed and his throat felt absolutely parched.

“Do you want anything?”

“No.”

For a while Thor just sat there on the couch, stroking Mjolnir and listening to the sound of Loki’s keyboard and the occasional mouse click. Thor was dying of hunger, he was thirsty, and his leg hurt, but he couldn’t bear to ask Loki for one more thing. He could feel an unexplainable tension in the room, as if a single word from him would make the whole place go up in flames.

He sat there in silence for almost half an hour before Loki got up. Thor watched him walk into the kitchen and pour himself a fresh cup of coffee. When Loki turned back and met his eyes, he frowned.

“What are you doing?” Loki asked.

“Nothing,” Thor replied.

“So you’re…just going to sit there?”

Thor shrugged and averted his eyes. “I don’t want to bother you.”

“I’m not really doing anything. Just reading work e-mails. They’re pointless and I’m just deleting most of them.”

“Still, I think I’d rather just sit here.”

Loki frowned and set his coffee cup down, then walked over to the couch. “Do you want the TV on or something?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“Well, do you want _anything_?” Loki put his hands on his hips, a sign that Thor knew meant Loki was about to stop caring about the conversation.

So Thor just swallowed tightly and asked what was on his mind. “Will you drive me home?”

Loki’s eyes widened slightly and he slowly put his hands down. “…No?” he said, raising an eyebrow. “You’re not even close to ready to be by yourself.”

“I’m fine. In fact, I feel great.”

Loki crossed his arms and scowled. “So what are you saying? That I haven’t been doing a good enough job so you want to go home and undo all of my hard work?”

Normally, Loki’s theatrics were part of his charm, and Thor loved him all the more for it. But now, his words only made him angry. “ _You’re_ the one who wants me to leave. I’m just trying to do you a favor and spare you from having to kick me out.”

“A _favor_?” Loki sputtered. “Who is doing _who_ a fucking _favor_ in this situation, Thor!? If I had known you were going to be so ungrateful I never would have come to get you! I would have just ignored the phone call and left you there at the hospital!”

“Right, because you’re so fond of ignoring my phone calls and leaving me places, aren’t you?”

“What are you—” Loki narrowed his eyes in confusion, but a bewildered smile crossed his face as the memory came back to him. “Oh my God. Oh my _God_ , you are _still_ mad about that!?” Loki laughed. Damn him, he actually laughed.

“Of course I am!!” Thor shouted, much, much louder than he’d intended. For the slightest of instants there was a flash of fear in Loki’s eyes, but it evaporated quickly, overtaken by shock. “Of course I’m still upset about it, Loki!”

“I _told_ you, my cell phone battery died and I forgot about it! For fuck’s sake, Thor, it’s not like you couldn’t have just picked up any bitch in the bar that you wanted and brought her home for the night! I have never, _ever_ gone out of my way to hurt you!”

Thor wanted to shout, he wanted to scream back and say that Loki was full of shit, because he _was_ , and they both knew it. But for some unknown reason, all of his energy to fight just then fizzled out of him. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want to claw and force and grapple his way into Loki’s life if Loki so clearly didn’t give a shit about him. He’d made the right choice, asking to leave. All of this, from the very beginning, was a mistake.

Instead, Thor just took a deep breath, and asked again, “Will you please drive me home?”

“No.” Loki shook his head. “No, I will not.”

“Please stop tormenting me. Just let me leave and I promise I won’t ever call you again.”

“I’m not letting you leave, you idiot, because while you were sleeping it snowed another two feet and I can’t get my car out of the parking garage.” Loki sighed and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. “Otherwise, I would. But I already tried to go to the pharmacy today and there’s just no way I can drive in this.”

Thor frowned, then turned to look out the window. Indeed, there was a lot more snow in the neighboring rooftops than there had been this morning. “Wait a minute…” he said, turning back to face Loki. “Pharmacy?”

“I called your doctor for you, you asshole,” Loki hissed. “I tried to get you another refill on your painkillers since you’re almost out. I was going to pick them up and wouldn’t you know it, you can’t drive a BMW through eight feet of snow.”

Thor didn’t know what to say. He had never been able to fully read Loki, but even spending this much time with him had only confused him more. Nothing that he did matched up. None of what he said made sense. Every time Thor thought he was getting a glimpse beyond Loki’s walls, Loki only shut him out even more. Thor didn’t know if Loki was even slightly who he claimed to be.

“If you went home now,” Loki continued, staring down at his hands, “then you wouldn’t have anybody to take care of you. You’d fall, or you’d need to get somewhere and not be able to drive, or you’d pass out again like you did today. If you’re here, then I can watch you. And if you’re here, then….”

A pause. “Then what?” Thor prompted.

“Nothing,” Loki said softly. He didn’t look up. “I’m…I’m sorry about the date thing, okay? …I really had no idea it still bothered you.”

Thor’s eyes widened. That had been the last outcome he’d been expecting this discussion to have. He wanted to say _it’s okay_ , but it wasn’t. He wanted to tell Loki that it was all fine and sweep him up in a hug and kiss him and say that he loved him, but he couldn’t. He wished he could pretend that it didn’t still hurt like hell. Thor opened his mouth to speak, but there were no words to be found.

“You can believe whatever you want to believe about why I didn’t come,” Loki continued, “but I really do mean it when I say that I never intentionally tried to hurt you. And if I have, well, you know, I hurt a lot of people apparently.” He shrugged. “It’s a common theme with me. You’re not special, I’ve stood people up on dates before. I even mailed back an engagement ring once. So it’s not because I hate you or anything, I just…I hate everybody, really.”

“Well, I don’t hate you,” Thor said. “In fact, Loki…I actually like you.”

Loki huffed. “Shut up.” He looked up sheepishly.

“No, I do, and I wish you’d believe me.”

“ _Really_? After all the terrible things I’ve said to you, do you _really_?”

“You only mean like, ten percent of the things you say.” Thor grinned. “And…yeah, even after all of that. That’s how I know, actually. You’ve hurt me and confused me and I probably shouldn’t have anything to do with you, but I want to.”

Loki threw his hands down and sighed loudly. “I don’t want anything _complicated_ with you, Thor,” he said with the pink flush creeping up his cheeks again. “That’s all relationships ever are, they’re complicated and terrible in every way.”

“I mean…I guess you’re not wrong,” Thor replied, contemplating deeply. “They are pretty difficult. And stressful. They cost a lot of money. You have to remember so many different dates. You don’t always get a lot of time to yourself.”

“Exactly. The only thing about relationships that’s worth the trouble is the sex. And we already do that, so what are you complaining for?”

“I don’t know, I just….” Thor shrugged. “I want…more than that. I want to see you more often. I want to know more about you. I want to know when your damn birthday is, Loki. I want to know things like you used to work in a restaurant or you didn’t know your mom or that you take forty-five minute showers.”

“May 6th. That’s my birthday. Happy now?”

Thor sighed. “No, it’s not.”

“I beg your pardon? How the hell would you know?”

“I can just tell you’re lying to me, okay? And not even over something important.”

Loki took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He sat down on the opposite end of the couch and stared Thor straight in the eye. “Why does it matter to you so much? Why do _I_ matter to you so much?”

“I can’t explain it! I can’t put it into words, it’s just…okay maybe the first time we slept together it was just a fling and I thought that would be it, just like you did, but then after the second time, or the third time, I just…you’re all I can think about. I don’t know why. I just want to be near you all the time. You’re just…so different from everything I know.”

Loki looked down at the carpet but didn’t say a word.

“I’m not saying that we have to get married or anything,” Thor continued. “It just means that…I just want a chance to have something with you. For a little while, at least. And if it’s something long-term or if it’s not, then at least we’ll have been together.”

“And if I do something horrible again?” Loki asked. “If I do something that hurts you worse than that night at the restaurant?”

“You might, you might not! There’s no point in thinking about it _now_.  But if you did then...then we'll just figure it out together.”

Loki grimaced. “Your optimism is really disgusting sometimes.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Loki rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. “Well…why don’t you come into the kitchen and I’ll make us some lunch? And…yeah, just...sandwiches all right?”

“Sandwiches are fine.” Thor looked down to reach for his crutches beside the couch, and when he looked up again, Loki’s face was just inches from his.

Before he had a chance to say anything, Loki was kissing him.

They’d kissed many times before, but those had been quick, rough, and in the heat of lovemaking. This one, however—Thor didn’t even know Loki could kiss like this. It was so delicate, almost chaste; Loki didn’t even force his way into Thor’s mouth, only opened his lips just enough for his breath to flow from his lungs into Thor’s. One hand was gripping the back of Thor’s head tightly, Loki’s slender fingers intertwined with his hair. The other was ensnared in the fabric of Thor’s shirt, pulling sharply but with no real force. Thor sat there, completely taken off guard, but absolutely enthralled by the feel of Loki’s lips on his again. He had forgotten how soft and small Loki’s hands were; he had forgotten the sensation of Loki’s skin on his. The last time they had slept together had been several weeks before his accident. It felt like so much longer now.

Eventually, Loki pulled away. His face had bypassed pink and was completely red, but his eyes were deadly serious.

Thor began to grin, and Loki pointed a finger in his face and said, “Don’t. Don’t you dare laugh at me.”

“I wasn’t!”

“And don’t you dare ask why I did that.”

“I…okay?” Regardless, Thor couldn’t stop smiling.

Loki rolled his eyes and got to his feet. “Come on, I have to feed you at some point today, don’t I?”


	5. Chapter 5

Loki did everything in his power to not make eye contact with Thor throughout their entire lunch. Thor had gone through about three sandwiches by now. On the one hand, it was good that he had the energy to eat, but on the other, Loki was dangerously close to running out of food, and who knew how long they’d be snowed in. Loki had finished his own lunch a while ago, and was staring at his work e-mail inbox, which was starting to fill up with notices from insurance companies saying they weren’t writing new policies in the area for a while.

_Of course not_ , Loki thought. _This snowstorm is a nightmare._ He had already ignored about five calls on his cell phone from policyholders who had gotten in accidents. He was tempted to change his voicemail message to “ _Call the fucking company_ ”, but decided against it.

Thor reached down and gave the final bite of his sandwich to Mjolnir, who purred happily and carried it over to her bed.

“She is never going to develop any manners if you keep spoiling her like that,” Loki commented.

“I don’t mind spoiling her a little bit,” Thor replied with a grin. “It’s how I earned her trust in the first place.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. I got her from a rescue foundation. They said she’d been adopted and returned three times, and told me not to get her. To be honest, it took me almost two months to get her to stop scratching me. But she came around eventually, and now she can’t stand to be away from me.”

“Hmm,” Loki said, glaring across the room at Mjolnir, who was now licking her paws. “I guess there had to be someone out there stupid enough to look after her.”

“She’s really not that bad of a cat, once you get to know her. She’s just cranky because we’re in a new place. But at home she’s really affectionate and snuggly. Sometimes she sits in my shoes and meows at me to not go to work.”

“Well, don’t let her know you told me that, it might hurt her pride.”

Thor chuckled. “You and her are really not that different, you know.”

Loki sighed heavily, deleting more e-mails from his inbox. “I suppose you’re not wrong. We both seem to be tangled up with this big, blond idiot.”

“And I keep getting involved with little fluffy divas.”

“Fluffy?” Loki repeated, looking up angrily. “I beg your pardon?”

“You know, your hair.” Thor reached over the table and playfully batted at a lock of Loki’s hair. Loki jerked back, affronted.

“My hair is _not_ …fluffy,” Loki growled.

“It’s soft, though.” Thor smiled fondly. “And it gets all curly first thing in the morning after you’ve slept on it.”

“And just how would you know what my hair looks like first thing in the morning?”

“Well, besides the fact that I’ve been living here for a while…I used to wake up before you, you know. Whenever we…met up. And sometimes I’d just lay there and watch you sleep. Sometimes I’d pretend to be asleep when you finally did wake up.” He paused. “You know, because I didn’t…I didn’t want you to think less of me.”

Loki frowned. “And why would I think less of you?”

“You know, for staying. I don’t usually do one-night stands, or anything like what we do. I don’t know what the etiquette is.”

“There is no etiquette. At least none that I care about.” Loki abruptly shut his laptop and rubbed his eyes. “I should have gone shopping yesterday when they were calling for snow.”

“I’m sure we’ve got plenty for today. Maybe the snow will melt enough that we can go tomorrow?”

Loki sighed. “Maybe. Wait a minute—no. There’s no ‘we’. _I’ll_ go tomorrow, and you stay home.”

“Come on, please?” Thor tried his most charming smile. “I’ve been stuck inside for days. I’m going crazy.”

“No.”

“What if I’m good all day? Can going out be my reward?”

Loki cocked an eyebrow and sat back, crossing his arms. “Define ‘good’.”

“I’ll take all my medicine without complaining,” Thor offered.

“That’s a good start.”

“Um…I’ll…I’ll do what you tell me the first time without arguing. Like sitting down or resting.”

Loki nodded, starting to smile. “And?”

Thor thought for a minute, then asked, “What else would you like?”

“I’ll think of something. For now, I like what you’ve said so far. Let’s see if you can keep it up the whole day.” Loki stood from his seat and reached for Thor’s empty plate.

“I will do my best,” Thor said with a wide grin.

When Loki finished with the dishes, it was two o’clock. It had begun to snow again outside, and the sky was growing grayer and darker with each passing moment. Thor couldn’t remember seeing a snowstorm quite like this in the city before. They always had bad winters, but this was something else.

“So,” said Loki, folding the dish towel into its holder. “What shall we do now? Now that we’re stuck inside.”

“TV sounds good. Or maybe a movie? I was looking through your Netflix queue the other day and found something I wanted to see…maybe we can watch it together?”

Loki considered it, then shrugged. “I guess so. Go get it ready; I’ll make us some tea.”

Thor’s face was like that of an excited schoolboy as he deftly leapt to his feet. He made his way over to the couch with practiced ease. Loki couldn’t help smiling, despite himself.

He remembered the last time he had seen Thor with that smile. It had been the night he’d said yes to his proposal of a date. At the time, Loki had to admit that he was looking forward to it. At that time, they had only known each other a few months, but something about Thor kept Loki hoping to run into him on Friday nights. He hardly ever chose anybody else from that bar to sleep with since meeting Thor. Whatever it was he needed, whatever was “missing”, Thor filled it perfectly, so why should Loki expend energy elsewhere? There was a reason people ordered the same dish over and over at their favorite restaurant.

It was only a few hours after the date proposal that Loki began to panic. He couldn’t remember for the life of him why he had agreed, and could only blame a bit of it on the drinks. He’d been sober enough to drive home, hadn’t he? He should have been sober enough to think long and hard about the prospect of dating again.

The problem wasn’t with Thor. It was with what Thor was inevitably going to do. They’d have a date, Thor would say he had a great time whether he did or not, and then Loki’s phone would explode for three months. Thor would ask for more dates. He’d buy Loki gifts. He’d ask if he could call Loki his boyfriend. He’d buy more expensive gifts. He’d demand more attention. He’d eat up Loki’s life and give nothing back.

And the whole time, Loki would lie to Thor and to himself and pretend that he wanted it.

_I can’t do it again. I can’t handle it._

It was better this way, wasn’t it? For him to tell Thor from the beginning that he wasn’t interested, that he didn’t believe in putting effort into something that wouldn’t end up well? He had stared at his phone that morning, typing and deleting a million texts that fell anywhere between _something came up_ and _I have a lot of issues and not enough time_ and _I’m not coming._

Then Thor’s text had come in.

_Hey Loki! Looking forward to dinner tonight :)_

Loki hadn’t had the heart to reply anything except _me too._

He spent the next hour crying at shitty Saturday morning cooking shows.

All day, he went back and forth. Was there any reason he might need to go into work? Of course Clint and Natasha were out of town, otherwise he’d see if they were doing anything. Maybe he wasn’t feeling so well. Was there anything expired in the house he could eat to make himself sick? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe he should go out and buy a new shirt. Maybe he should pour bleach on all his clothes “accidentally.”

Maybe Thor would be the one to cancel. Loki hoped and prayed for some excuse, any excuse whatsoever, to not do this. He couldn’t do dates again. He couldn’t do a relationship again. He would leave Thor in the end, or Thor would leave him, and then….

It had hit him then, suddenly and intensely. He didn’t need to make anything up. He just needed to not show. If he just completely stood Thor up, with no explanation and no warning, then it would surely kill any budding affection Thor might have for him. They could go back to being uncomplicated fuckbuddies. If Thor demanded an explanation later, Loki could come up with it then.

Loki had anxiously watched the clock tick past the time he should have left. He watched it tick past the time he should have arrived. He poured himself a drink and turned on the TV. One of his favorite movies was playing. Well, how could he leave now?

The calls on his cell phone started coming in shortly. Of course they were all from Thor. Loki let his phone vibrate right off the table as he poured his fourth glass of wine. The text messages came soon after. Loki finished the bottle of wine and switched to vodka. After three glasses of it he fumbled at his phone in an attempt to delete the texts without reading them. He briefly considered deleting Thor’s number too, but a brief moment of clarity reminded him that if he did that, he might never get to see Thor’s dick again.

The thought had been so absurd that Loki laughed for five minutes straight before the headache crept up on him, and he barely made it to the bathroom to throw up the contents of an empty stomach. He crawled into the shower and slept there for a few minutes, then woke up and decided he was hungry.

It was the last thing Loki remembered until he woke up the next morning, still in the tub, with the biggest headache of all time. He managed to crawl out of the bathroom and over to his cell phone, which was lying face down beside the couch. Loki flipped it over and couldn’t help but see the final text message he’d received last night.

_Never mind._

Loki considered the miserable day that followed his penance for being such an insensitive bastard. But, as he’d expected, by Monday he was over it. By Friday, he’d all but forgotten it, yet Thor’s absence from the club that night brought everything back to the forefront of his mind.

It was a few weeks before they saw or spoke to each other again. Loki showed up to the club like he always did, and Thor was sitting in his usual spot. Loki recalled that they had barely spoken at all, but a few drinks later and they were right back where they always were. Tangled up together in that nice hotel room, alcohol clouding their vision and judgment. Loki remembered that Thor had fucked him particularly well that night.

Since then, they had never spoken of the date. At least not until today.

Loki brought over two mugs of tea to the couch. Mjolnir had already settled herself on the middle cushion of the couch, and she eyed Loki warily as he approached.

“Oh I’m sorry, may I sit here?” Loki asked her sarcastically.

Mjolnir stood up slowly, the fur on her back rising. Thor chuckled softly. “Mjolnir, stop,” he said gently, petting her down her spine. Mjolnir sat down and meowed.

Loki shot her a glare as he plopped down on his side of the couch. He set Thor’s cup in front of him and took a sip from his own. Mjolnir moved to Thor’s lap and curled up into a restful ball.

For about the first forty-five minutes of the movie, neither of them spoke. Loki stole a few glances in Thor’s direction. Thor didn’t appear to know that Loki was even there: he was purely engrossed in the movie, one hand idly scratching Mjolnir’s neck. The cat was purring so loudly Loki almost couldn’t hear the TV over her. At around the hour mark, it struck Loki that he had no idea what they would do after this. He’d never _really_ spent an entire day at home with Thor before. The first few days Thor was here, he had slept most of the time. When he wasn’t doing that, Loki was at work.

What in the hell were they going to do to pass the time if neither of them could leave?

Loki smiled to himself as he realized he could think of _one_ thing. And why not? It was Saturday. Weekends were usually their days to meet up. Loki glanced over at Thor again. Would he even be… _able_ to, what with the enormous cast encasing his entire leg like that?

“What?” Thor asked suddenly, jolting Loki from his thoughts. “What are you staring at me for?”

“Hmm?” Loki replied, looking up. “Oh, I just…I was running through some logistics in my head.”

“Logistics?” Thor raised an eyebrow. “For what, exactly?”

“You know.” Loki scooted closer on the couch, giving Thor his sweetest smile. “I mean, as long as you’re here and we have nothing to do….” He reached over for the remote and paused the movie.

Thor, precious idiot that he was, actually looked confused. “I’m…I’m in a cast, Loki,” he said softly. “I didn’t think you…I mean, I don’t know if I can….”

“You wouldn’t have to do anything. Just sit there and let me take care of you, like I have been this whole week.”

Thor frowned, considering it. “I don’t know if we should.”

“We can work around the cast, Thor.” Loki touched it gently and rubbed his palm up and down. “You won’t even have to move.”

“No, it’s not that, I just don’t think we should at all.”

That caught Loki off guard. He scowled and drew his hand back. “Excuse me? And why is that?”

“I just….” Thor rubbed the back of his head, looking guilty and staring at the floor. “I’m not sure if I…if I want to anymore, knowing that you don’t…I mean if that’s all I’m good for, to you….”

“I beg your pardon, but that is not how this works,” Loki huffed. “I’m not asking you to make a major life decision, Thor, I just wanted to have sex with you for a few minutes. Unless you’re saying that you think I’m ugly now, is that it?”

“ _No_ , Loki, I don’t think you’re ugly,” Thor replied wearily.

“Then what is the _problem_? Do you want me to kiss you again? You’re the one who wants a relationship, so you tell me what to do! You tell me how a boyfriend would ask to be fucked versus how a fuckbuddy would ask!”

“Could you please not hold that against me? You don’t want to be my boyfriend, okay, I get it.” He sighed. “But honestly, Loki? If all you want is to keep doing what we’ve been doing, then at least tell me why you even invited me here? Can you at least tell me why _now_ , a whole week later, is the first time you’ve propositioned me for sex since I got here, if that’s all I am to you?”

“Because for the first four days you were hopped up on narcotics and didn’t shower,” Loki said.

Thor rolled his eyes. “Okay fine, fair enough, but you still haven’t told me why you invited me here.”

“And you haven’t told _me_ why I was your emergency contact.” Loki sat back and crossed his arms.

“Fine. So if I tell you, will you explain yourself to me?”

Loki nodded wordlessly.

“Promise?”

“ _Yes_ , all right?”

Thor paused a minute before he spoke. “It was kind of a joke to begin with,” he said quietly. “I didn’t _need_ to list you. I had to update the form and I just…it was an impulse. I did it not long after you stood me up, and I guess it was manipulative of me, but I was so hurt that I didn’t even really care. I just wanted to know if you cared about me in the slightest. If you would come if I needed something other than sex. I don’t know why, because I have a lot of friends that I _know_ care about me, so I don’t know why your approval matters so much to me, but…fuck’s sake, Loki, I can’t just _ask_ you. You’ve never given me a straight answer in your life. It’s like you’re always trying to hide something from me. It was a longshot at the time, but I thought that if there was any way to see how you honestly, truly felt…maybe that would be it.”

There was another long, awkward pause as Loki processed that. He stared down at his lap, his fingers drumming nervously against his bicep. “Guess I showed my hand then,” he mumbled eventually. “Because I did come running for you.”

“Yeah,” Thor replied with a small smile. “Yeah, you did.”

Another pause. Mjolnir yawned and leapt off the couch, going over to curl up in her bed.

“Then I guess my answer’s going to seem selfish,” Loki said.

“How’s that?”

“I mean, your answer’s pretty pathetic, but next to mine it sounds just about noble.” Loki smirked and looked up. “I took you home with me because I wanted you all to myself.”

Thor frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t, you’ve never been rejected. How could you have been? Look at you.” Loki laughed softly. “Who knows how long an injury like that is going to last? I didn’t know how long it was going to be until I saw you again. Within that amount of time, you’d find somebody new, somebody who was there for you.” He spoke the last three words with scathing bitterness.

“That’s all anybody ever wants, isn’t it?” Loki continued. “Somebody who’s going to be _there for you_. And it doesn’t matter where! As long as you put all your energy into making sure somebody else doesn’t crumble without asking for a thing in return. That’s the noble thing, right? The ‘good’ thing? You can’t replace somebody who’s _there for you_ all the time, now can you? That’s all a relationship ever really comes down to. You find yourself a nice little human trophy to display and tell the whole world, ‘look how much they let me take from them. Look how much they burn themselves to keep me warm.’ No, you just can’t replace that at all.”

Loki searched Thor’s face for some kind of emotion, some window into his thoughts, but found none. Thor’s expression was blank and stoic.

“If anybody like that were to come along into your life,” Loki said, “you’d never give a second thought to me again. So I never brought you here for your own good, Thor. I never did any of this for you. I did it for _me_ , do you understand? I did it so I could have you all to myself, so you wouldn’t throw me away.”

Loki shut his mouth instantly as soon as the words were out. He hadn’t meant to say quite that much.

“So,” Thor said, his tone neutral, “you brought me here to your house because you didn’t want me to start dating somebody else?”

“I wouldn’t put it that way, but if that’s how you want to say it, then yes.”

“Start dating…while I was in a cast?”

“ _Yes_ , dammit, didn’t I already make myself clear!?”

“…Loki, where did you think I was going to go?” Thor looked like he was struggling to keep from smiling. “Did you think I was going to hit the bars every night…with my crutches?”

“ _No, you idiot_!” Loki shouted, feeling the damned blush creep up his face. “I thought one of your other friends might…I thought somebody you already _knew_ would….”

“Would do exactly what you’re doing?”

“I told you already, I’m _not_ doing this for your benefit!!”

“Loki, I don’t think that a single one of my friends would take this situation as an opportunity to ask me out. In fact, the only person that would even consider doing something like that is you.”

Loki grabbed one of the couch pillows and threw it directly at Thor’s face. “I’m not trying to ask you out!” Loki shouted again as Thor began to laugh in earnest. “That’s not what this is! I’m only doing this for your stupid cock, that’s all I care about!!”

“Well, that’s a shame, isn’t it, because you’re not getting it now,” Thor replied cheekily.

“You son of a bitch, I will kick you out onto the streets right this minute,” Loki growled.

“Loki,” Thor said between giggles, “just say it. Just say—”

“Just say _what_!?”

“Just say that…you have a little bit of a crush on me.” Thor grinned, and Loki swore the bastard had never looked so smug.

“I will not. I _do_ not!” Loki insisted, his face growing warmer by the second. Broken leg or no, he was very close to punching Thor in the face.

“At least admit you like me.”

“No!” Loki leaned forward and made a swing at Thor’s face, but Thor caught his wrist smoothly, as if he’d anticipated the move long ago.

“At the very, _very_ least,” said Thor, unflinching from the fire in Loki’s eyes, “say that you don’t hate me.”

Loki angrily tried to pull his wrist from Thor’s grasp, and on the third or fourth try Thor finally let him go. Loki huffed and wondered if he could try for another punch, but Thor didn’t look the least bit intimidated. If anything, he was ready to take a thousand blows and more, knowing that Loki would not truly be able to hurt him.

Thor wasn’t asking for much. In fact, it was probably the least anybody had ever asked of Loki, while also being the most, in that Thor was not going to let him get away with anything less than the truth. And since Thor already knew the truth himself, what point was there anymore in avoiding it?

Loki released the tension in his shoulders and exhaled. “I don’t hate you,” he whispered. As if it had a mind of its own, his hand reached out to grab Thor’s. “I feel…a lot of emotions about you. But hate is not one of them.”

Thor smiled, brought Loki’s hand to his lips, and laid a gentle kiss on his fingers. Loki immediately drew his hand back and said, “That doesn’t mean that you don’t annoy the shit out of me.”

“Okay,” Thor laughed.

“It also doesn’t mean that you’re not frustrating as hell.”

“I’ll take it.”

Loki paused again, took a deep breath, and exhaled. God, what was _wrong_ with him today? “You got me, okay? Are you happy? I…I want you to stay here. With me. Just for a little while.”

Thor reached up and put his hand on the back of Loki’s head, then pulled him close and kissed him. As before, the gesture was innocent: there was no tongue, no roughness, no force. Just the press of their lips together, a brief moment of shared oxygen and space.

When they came apart, Loki cleared his throat and adjusted himself on the couch. “Can I…I mean may I…I’m going to lay down on you. All the pillows have cat hair in them now.”

“Go right ahead.”

Not without some degree of self-consciousness, Loki arranged himself with his head in Thor’s lap, most of his weight against Thor’s good leg. Mjolnir appeared from nowhere, meowing sadly at her master.

“Sorry, girl,” Thor said, “your spot’s taken.”

Mjolnir meowed again and slinked away to her bed. Loki couldn’t resist sticking his tongue out at her as she went.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *rubs hands together* I think 5 chapters was long enough for you guys to wait for the sex :3

Thor struggled to keep his exploding internal happiness under control. Having Loki’s head in his lap was more than he ever would have expected when he woke up this morning. It seemed that slowly but surely they were making some sort of progress, and Thor couldn’t be more excited.

He was used to having Mjolnir in his lap and she loved nothing more than to be scratched behind the ears. Loki, on the other hand, apparently did not. He batted Thor’s hand away every time it wandered to his hair, grunting out a soft, “Stop that.” Nevertheless, through habit and just not knowing what else to do with his hands, Thor mistakenly found himself repeating the motions twenty minutes later.

The movie ended and Loki sat up, a cool rush of air displacing the spot where he’d laid against Thor’s thigh.

“That was pretty good,” Thor said.

“It was all right. I guess I’ll rate it.” Loki put in three stars on the movie’s Netflix page and clicked back to the list of movies. “Do you want to watch something else?”

“No. But…if you don’t mind….” Thor reached out, gently grabbing hold of Loki’s shoulder, and pulled him back down onto his lap. “This was nice.” He smiled.

Loki looked up at him, crossed his arms, and pouted. “Is it now?” he asked. “Did I behave well enough to finally get some attention?”

“What is this ‘finally’ bullshit?” Thor laughed. “Did we not just spend the last hour like this?”

“You know very well that’s not what I mean.”

“Oh, is that how you think this works? You give me an hour of innocent cuddling and I’m supposed to repay you somehow?”

“I’ve given you much more than that. I’ve just—” Loki sighed, reaching up to touch Thor’s face “—I’ve had such a long week, Thor.”

“Oh, poor baby,” Thor teased. He took Loki’s hand and kissed it. “You _have_ been working hard.”

“Mm-hmm,” Loki replied. He sat up and repositioned himself on the couch, straddling Thor’s lap and gently resting his weight on Thor’s thighs. “I think we both deserve to relax a little.”

Loki went in for Thor’s neck, kissing and nipping greedily at the sensitive curve between his neck and shoulder.

Thor grabbed Loki around the waist, and for an instant it felt as though he was going to push him away. Loki responded by tightening his grip on Thor’s shoulders and running his tongue lightly over Thor’s rough stubble. Eventually, Thor’s grip loosened and settled further down on Loki’s hips.

“Mmm, I missed this,” Loki purred against Thor’s skin. “How long has it been?”

“I’m not sure,” Thor replied, his voice tight. There was a long pause before he added, “Too long.”

Loki left off kissing him for a moment and rested his forehead on Thor’s shoulder. “Thor?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, Loki?”

“Do you hate me?”

“Not even a little.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Loki snapped.

“I’m not.”

“Even though I’m forcing myself on you right now?”

Thor chuckled, sending pleasant vibrations through Loki’s body. “Loki, believe me, if I did not want you to touch me, then you would not be.”

Loki lifted his head and looked Thor in the eyes. Thor was smiling at him with such fondness, such hopeless infatuation…it struck Loki that nobody had ever looked at him like that before. Not even anybody who had claimed to love him.

Before Loki had time to be scared, Thor’s expression grew serious and he leaned in for a kiss. Loki felt his heart stop and then immediately begin pounding in his ears. Thor had never kissed him like this before. Thor’s lips, always so confident and strong, were soft and gentle as they brushed against Loki’s own. Loki couldn’t help but gasp at the heat that was beginning to flare deep in his stomach, and Thor’s tongue swept lightly into his mouth. Loki sighed out, willing his body to relax, and before he knew it he was practically melting into Thor’s embrace.

He barely even remembered pressing himself into Thor’s chest, and he wasn’t sure exactly when Thor’s solid arms had wrapped so tightly around his torso, but it couldn’t have mattered any less. Soon, it wasn’t enough: Loki needed more, he craved it, he was dying without it.

He grabbed Thor’s T-shirt and pulled it hastily up and off. As soon as it was gone, Loki went straight back into the kiss, ignoring Thor’s attempts to remove Loki’s shirt as well. Loki was growing hard quickly, and he didn’t have the patience to wait much longer. As he ground his hips down into Thor’s lap, he felt Thor’s cock straining against the fabric of his pants.

Loki broke away for a moment, catching his breath and taking a minute to admire Thor’s face. Thor’s lips were puffed and red, his eyes fixated intently on Loki, his massive chest heaving up and down. Loki lifted himself up on his knees and reached for the elastic waistband of Thor’s pajama pants. He dug his fingers greedily past the band, brushing the massive bulge of Thor’s cock with his fingertips. Thor’s breath hitched and he thrust his hips up into Loki’s hand.

Loki greedily grasped Thor’s hardening cock, purposefully squeezing just a bit too hard. Thor winced, his whole body jerking in sudden pain, and laid his head back as he gasped sharply. Loki began to work his heated palm up and down, his own erection growing as he felt Thor hardening in his hand. Thor’s gasps turned to sharp intakes of needy, moaning breaths, and his hands were suddenly at Loki’s waist again, pulling him back down onto his thighs and grinding roughly into him. Thor’s calloused fingers were grabbing furiously at the button of Loki’s pants. He did not get very far, as right at that moment, Loki’s lips crashed back into his, and then everything was heat and haze and dizziness.

Their previous couplings had always involved a certain sense of hurriedness, and in Thor’s opinion, had never amounted to much more than the two of them masturbating with each other’s bodies. After a few drinks and by the time they’d make it to the hotel room, they were always too horny and buzzed to put much thought or care into what they were doing. After all, there had never been a particular need to impress one another.

So to have Loki in his lap now, his tongue in Thor’s mouth like he wanted to eat up every last one of his moans, his hand stroking Thor’s cock with no attention paid to his own, it was like their first time. A different first time. A much, much better one.

Thor wrapped his arms greedily around Loki’s slight, muscular frame. He couldn’t fathom letting him go in this moment, or in any moment ever again. He could feel the tensing of Loki’s body as he pulled him close, and his heartbeat thumped mercilessly against Thor’s bare chest. Loki’s other hand was on Thor’s neck, squeezing and massaging in time with the strokes of his warm fingers, and god, he was so good at this. The instant that the crest of Thor’s orgasm began to rise up, Loki’s pace would slow, and then speed up again, while his weight on Thor’s thighs kept Thor from bucking upward into his hand. Each time the far-off sensation escaped, Thor whined deep into Loki’s mouth, and Thor could feel the way Loki’s lips upturned into a smile. And then Loki’s hand was quickening again, and Thor tensed with anticipation, his mouth slackening against Loki’s kiss…and Loki would slow, with the utmost perfect timing, reclaiming control of Thor’s pleasure even as he laid pliantly across Thor’s chest. Although Thor’s senses were overloaded with the promise and denial of completion, he could feel Loki’s body trembling gently against him, his breaths—his tiny, adorable, perfect breaths—coming short and fast.

He had no idea how long Loki kept up this game. It could have been seconds, hours, days, it all felt the same at this point. Thor wished it could last forever, but his body wasn’t half as patient. Soon, the edging became so intense that Thor could swear he heard himself sobbing.

He broke away from Loki’s face with a sharp whine. “Loki…ah, _god_ …” he whimpered. His grip was so tight on Loki’s body, he was certain that he must be leaving bruises.

Loki’s lips were immediately on his jaw, his sly little tongue licking the stubble of Thor’s beard. “You like that, baby?” he breathed in between kisses.

Thor couldn’t form words anymore. He could only grunt out a noise that he hoped Loki would interpret as _Yes, yes, god yes…._

“I just want to take care of you,” came Loki’s voice, suddenly by Thor’s ear. He nibbled gently at Thor’s earlobe and worked his way down the side of his neck. “Just let me make you happy…the way you make me happy….”

One final stroke, one final push, and Thor was screaming out in devastating ecstasy. He held tight to Loki’s waist, holding him in place as his hips bucked upward towards the warm body sprawled over him. Thor craved the feeling of Loki’s bare skin on his, to see him laid naked across the bed, to hold and touch every last hidden inch of him. Loki kept up his rhythm through the waves of Thor’s orgasm, milking him through to the very last, his hand only slowing when the climax settled and faded, leaving the sweetest rawness in Thor’s muscles.

Thor almost couldn’t see. He laid his head back on the couch and stared at the ceiling, his vision blurry, as he tried to catch his breath. Sweat was pouring off his chest and down to his pajama bottoms, which were certainly a mess by now. After a moment, Loki’s gentle hand slid behind his head and pulled Thor back up to face him. Loki’s pale face was flushed from exertion, stray bits of hair sticking to his forehead from the sweat. He leaned in for a soft, quick kiss, then sat back.

Loki pulled his hand from Thor’s pants, and it was absolutely filthy with Thor’s seed. Without a word, without breaking eye contact, Loki undid his pants and freed his aching cock. With his messy palm, he grabbed it and gave it a few quick jerks, bringing himself off in seconds. It went everywhere, all over the front of Thor’s chest, into his lap, mixing with Thor’s own spend on Loki’s fingers.

And then Loki smiled at him, and it struck Thor then that he’d never seen Loki smile like that. Loki leaned forward, touching their foreheads together, and for a long, silent time they just stayed like that. After a while, their breathing slowed, and the smell of sweat and sex became overwhelming.

Loki pressed another soft kiss to Thor’s lips. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Thor laughed and replied, “I should be thanking you…baby.”

Loki rolled his eyes and sat up straight. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Too late. It’s been said.”

Loki huffed and weakly placed his hand in the center of Thor’s face. Thor just laughed again and kissed his palm.

“You should probably shower or something,” Loki said, glancing out the window. The skies were darkening again, and the wind blew wisps of snow from the roofs across the street. “You’re filthy.”

Thor took Loki’s wrist and removed his hand from his face. “I am a bit of a mess today.”

Loki looked back at him. Thor’s whole face was flushed deep red, a healthy afterglow of exertion hanging about his whole body, and Loki was almost embarrassed at how quickly his heart began to race.

When they would meet at the bar and then later at the hotel, they never talked after. Sure, they might go two or three rounds, but there was never any closeness, no real talking, and certainly no cuddling. Loki only ever wanted to be fucked into a deep stupor—which Thor was expertly good at, might he just say—and it never occurred to him to imagine anything else.

Loki raised his hands to his shirt and slowly began to unbutton it. This was a nice shirt, after all, and Thor was an unmitigated mess at the moment. He was keenly aware of the way Thor’s eyes locked onto every single minor twitch of his long fingers as he worked his way down. Once the last button was undone, he shuffled out of the garment and tossed it aside. Then he leaned forward, laying his bare chest against Thor’s, against the sweat and musk and cum, and lightly wrapped his arms around Thor’s neck in a small hug. Thor’s thick arms were immediately around his torso then, and Loki could swear his biceps had grown bigger in the last few minutes.

He wanted to say something. Anything that came to mind sounded forced and artificial. Thor’s fingertips were playing lightly up and down Loki’s back, and his hands felt so strong, like they could fix anything.

“I want to figure this out,” was all he said in the end. Thor’s hands did not stop, and after a moment he could feel Thor nodding.

“Me too,” Thor agreed, pressing a lingering kiss to Loki’s head.

“Just promise me that if I disappoint you, you won’t be surprised.”

“Always so overdramatic. Not everything is as bad as you make it out to be, Loki. Not even you.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so sorry for the unexpected hiatus! I've been going through a lot of crazy (but positive!) life changes in the last few months and just never really got around to updating. I don't know how often I'll be able to update in the future but I will try not to disappear for quite so long again.
> 
> In the meantime, have some lovesick idiots <3

Loki could have laid in Thor’s arm for days. He didn’t even mind the slight chill of the room or the sticky sweat and various fluids on his chest. Thor was warm, his embrace was warm, and the feeling of his chest rising and falling as he breathed was enough to make Loki never worry about another thing again. Loki almost forgot that this wasn’t real. He could almost believe that there wasn’t a single complication between them, that everything was perfect and Thor really was his—

_My what_? Loki thought to himself. _Boyfriend? Husband? …Maybe just a regular friend?_

Eventually, it was a very insistent meow that ruined the moment. Mjolnir nuzzled her way in between Thor and Loki, meowing in apparent distress at her owner. Loki sat up and grimaced.

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you upset that I just gave your master a hand job in front of you?” Loki asked with a cocked eyebrow.

Thor laughed and picked Mjolnir up to snuggle her. “Sorry girl, but you know I can’t pay attention to you all the time.”

Mjolnir begged to differ as she wriggled out of Thor’s grasp to knead into his chest.

“Get out of here,” Loki hissed, grabbing the cat but still unable to move her from her claimed spot.

Thor laughed. “Next time perhaps we should at least warn her so she can cover her eyes.”

“Or at least lock her in a closet.”

Mjolnir whined and meowed and covered Thor’s face with her body insistently. Loki rolled his eyes and begrudgingly stood up from Thor’s lap.

“While you two have your _moment_ ,” Loki spat sarcastically, grabbing his discarded shirt from the floor, “I’m going to go shower.”

“Wait—Loki, are you m—”

“And when I’m done I suggest you do the same.” Loki skulked into his room and slammed the door.

He went into the master bathroom and turned on the shower, ripping the rest of his clothes off with an anger he didn’t quite understand yet. He _hated_ that stupid cat. She was just a small little feline, barely ten pounds, but one noise from her and Thor dropped everything to coddle her. She left cat hair everywhere, her little box was a constant mess, and she ruined absolutely everything.

Loki stepped into the steaming hot shower and washed the grime and sweat and fluids from his body. What had he been thinking, admitting so much to Thor? He’d practically confessed his love. What had made him so stupid as to believe that anything would change just because of that? It didn’t matter what either of them felt for one another. It would never work. Thor was too good, too gentle, too loving. Loki was nothing but bitterness. Loki would only destroy him, use him up and spit him back out until there wasn’t a trace of goodness left in Thor.

The shower was quick, in the end. Loki didn’t want to admit it, but part of him believed that when he went back out into the living room, Thor would be gone. Not just gone from the apartment, but completely erased, like he’d never been.

Wrapping himself quickly in his bathrobe, Loki opened the door out to the living room and peeked out. For an instant his heart seized up in fear when he saw the couch empty, but the gentle sound of Thor’s voice—the tone he used when speaking to his cat—coming from the kitchen brought a wave of relief over Loki. The idiot had lumbered his way over to the kitchen island and was feeding Mjolnir another can of tuna. At the sound of the door opening, Thor looked up.

“…You all done?” he asked. He was smiling, but there was wariness in his voice.

“Yeah,” Loki replied. A pause. “You can go next if you want.”

“Okay!” Thor said, a bit too cheerfully. “Just…just let me wait until Mjolnir finishes eating, then I’ll go.”

“Fair enough.” There was another pause. Mjolnir’s noisy chewing filled the silence.

“I’ll go get the shower ready for you then,” Loki said eventually.

“Okay. Thanks, Loki.”

Loki nodded curtly and headed back in to the bathroom. He had purchased a plastic stool for Thor to sit on while in the shower, as well as a decent amount of trash bags and duct tape to keep the cast dry. He got everything set up, then opened the linen closet for a fresh towel when he heard Thor enter the master bedroom. Loki quickly left the bathroom, but when he saw Thor’s face he suddenly found it nearly impossible to look him in the eye.

“Um…” Loki said, tucking damp hair behind his ear, “everything’s ready. …Do you want any help?”

“No thanks, I’ve gotten the hang of it now.” Thor smiled—still with caution in his eyes—and hobbled past Loki into the bathroom. Mjolnir meowed and darted in after him. Loki had never known a cat who liked taking showers with people, but almost everything about Mjolnir was incomprehensible to him. He heard Thor cooing happily at her and inviting her to come in with him from beyond the door, and something uncomfortably akin to jealous rage flared up in Loki.

He flopped down onto his bed, not even bothering to care about getting his pillow wet. He laid on his side, back to the bathroom door, and stuffed down the suffocating pulse of anger that manifested every time Thor’s voice wafted in from the shower.

_Asshole_ , Loki thought as he closed his eyes. Within moments, he was asleep.

He slept, and he dreamed. It was a short dream, quick but vivid. He was walking down the hallway of the hotel, the same one he and Thor had used every time they’d ever met up. He chose one door, not knowing why or how he knew, but knowing for a fact that Thor was in this one. He opened up the door and Thor was there, sitting on the bed in the same dusty construction worker’s outfit he’d worn on the day they met. Thor held a hammer in his right hand, and was tossing it in the air, catching it as it flipped back down.

Loki shrugged off his coat and Thor finally noticed him. He set down the hammer and smiled at Loki like he was the only thing in the world he could ever want.

“Hey, baby,” Thor said.

Almost as soon as the words were said in his dream, Loki opened his eyes, as though he’d never slept at all.

And right in front of him, standing there with one crutch, wearing nothing but a towel, staring, was Thor.

There was a small beat of silence. “Oh shit, did I wake you?” Thor blurted out, his face reddening. “I wasn’t doing anything! I wasn’t watching you sleep—I was just—trying to sneak in so I could…I mean…I forgot to grab clean clothes before I went in to the shower and….”

“What?” Loki asked blearily, squinting.

“Sorry, I’ll let you sleep.” Thor quickly turned and tried to make for the door, and Loki could swear he caught the hint of a blush on Thor’s face before he turned away.

“Wait a second,” Loki said, sitting up. Thor stopped, but didn’t turn back around. For a long while, Loki didn’t know what else to say.

“Let me…let me help you get dressed,” Loki offered eventually.

“No, that’s okay. I can do it on my own.”

Loki bristled. “So you don’t need me then, is that it?”

“That’s not it,” Thor replied, whirling around suddenly. His entire face was red, though whether from the heat of the shower or as a genuine blush, Loki couldn’t be sure.

“I feel like I’ve made you mad again,” Thor continued, his tone soft and wary, like a child who feared he was in trouble. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t like Mjolnir. I know she makes things very hard for you around here, and I know that I’m in the way all the time and I wish that…I wish that maybe things could be different between you and me. I like you Loki, I really, really like you a lot, and maybe I waited too long to say something, maybe we’ve seen each other for so long that it’s weird to say now, but I just…I hate…seeing you in so much—” Thor paused, running his free hand through wet hair “—I hate that I make you so upset all the time. So maybe I shouldn’t—maybe I’m not right for you somehow, or…”

“What?” Loki repeated. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Thor stared at the floor, fidgeting and shifting uncomfortably with all his weight on his good leg. The redness of his face persisted.

“If there’s anything that I’ve done—anything at all that I don’t know about—that I’ve done to hurt you, or upset you, then I’m sorry. I’m very, truly sorry.”

Loki sighed heavily, reaching up to rub his forehead. _This man is going to be the death of me_.

He could hardly bear to look at Thor’s face just then; how was it possible for such a huge man to have those puppy-dog eyes? Loki scooted back a bit on the bed, then patted the spot next to him. Thor’s face lit up ever so subtly.

“I’m not angry at you,” Loki made himself say. Whether it was true or not, he had no idea. It was just what he knew Thor needed to hear.

“But my hair’s all wet.”

“This invitation won’t be open all day.”

Thor quickly hobbled over and sat down, somewhat awkwardly, on the bed. He swung his legs up onto the mattress and set his crutches against the wall. Loki hadn’t expected it, but his bed held the both of them quite well. Once Thor was settled, Loki snuggled up to him, tucking himself under Thor’s arm.

“I’m going to take a nap,” Loki said. “So you can’t get up.”

“Okay,” Thor replied with a slight giggle.

Loki shut his eyes, and then immediately felt a kiss on his forehead. He opened his eyes again to see Thor looking at him with disarming fondness. Loki’s heart leapt into his throat and his stomach churned with butterflies, such as he hadn’t felt in decades. He felt his face growing red and before he could stop himself, he frowned and buried his face in Thor’s side.

“ _Stop_ it,” he snapped. Thor only laughed, his solid chest reverberating gently. He rolled over enough to grab Loki into an uncomfortably tight hug and pressed another, lingering kiss to the top of Loki’s head.

“You’re so cute,” Thor said with something akin to reverence.

“I am _not_.”

“Cuter than Mjolnir.”

“Now I know you’re full of shit.”

Thor took Loki’s hand and kissed the back of it, soft lips lingering gently on his fingers. Loki finally looked up and just watched Thor’s face as he heaped affection upon Loki’s hand, almost worshipping each joint of each finger, and then turning it over, placing a final kiss in the very center of Loki’s palm.

“What are you doing?” Loki asked, his voice quieter than expected.

“Kissing you,” Thor replied matter-of-factly. “Lying next to you.”

Loki was silent for a moment, and then a distant memory returned from the corners of his mind. He smiled. “Do you remember the time you gave me all those terrible hickies?”

Thor snorted inelegantly. “I do,” he replied, laughing. “You still had them when I saw you two weeks later!”

“Shut up, I did not. I was still finding them for days, though.”

“You made the cutest little noises.”

“Stop calling me cute or I’m going to punch you in the leg.”

“Well, if I can’t call you cute, what should I call you? Precious? Adorable? Loveable?”

Loki made a fist and lunged for Thor’s cast. Thor laughed and quickly grabbed his wrist. “All right, all right! I’ll think of something else.”

Loki glared as he snuggled back into Thor’s chest. He braced himself for the sound of a scandalized meow from somewhere in the room, but it never came. Mjolnir must have gone to lie down; Loki would thank her, if he could.

Eventually, the residual warmth of his shower and the gentle heat from Thor’s body began to take its toll on Loki, and he felt his eyelids growing heavy. Thor’s breaths were deep and even, raising Loki’s head and lowering it with every inhale and exhale. Loki adjusted his own breathing to match Thor’s—purely by accident, of course.

It was hard to tell how long they laid there. Loki simply rested with his eyes closed, not quite drifting off to sleep. The ticking of the clock was soft and distant, lulling him into deeper relaxation.

He dozed off after a time, only to awaken shortly thereafter by the sound of a cellphone going off in the other room. Loki groaned as he opened his eyes. Thor—the big idiot—hadn’t stirred at all from the noise. Loki huffed and sat up, quickly darting into the other room to grab the phone. He realized about halfway there that the ringtone wasn’t even his. Thor’s phone was sitting on the coffee table, vibrating frantically and blaring an obnoxious preset song.

Loki picked it up just in time to see the caller ID flash “DAD” across the screen before the phone went to voicemail. From in his bedroom, he heard Thor call his name.

“Relax,” Loki said, coming back in and throwing the phone on Thor’s stomach.

“I woke up and you weren’t there,” Thor pouted. Clearly he meant it as a jest, but Loki could detect a faint trace of real distress in Thor’s eyes.

“I had to answer your stupid phone.” Loki plopped back down on the bed and reclaimed his spot against Thor’s chest. “I think your dad called.”

Loki could feel Thor’s whole body go tense. Thor snatched up the phone and clicked a few buttons, then grit his teeth and whispered, “Shit.”

Thor scooted up to a sitting position and clicked another button, putting the phone to his ear. “Sorry, Loki,” he said softly.

Loki shrugged, rolling over to lay his head in Thor’s lap. He heard the sound of somebody’s voice on the other line, though he couldn’t make out the exact words.

“Hey, Dad,” Thor said with a lightness that Loki knew was fake. “Sorry I missed your call, I was sleeping—no! No, you’re not bothering me, what’s up?”

There was a long silence on Thor’s end. His dad was a real talker, apparently. Thor just kept nodding, saying “yeah” or “uh-huh” every few seconds.

“Okay, well—” Thor said eventually, reaching up to rub his head, “—I’m doing all I can. I mean, I can’t make myself heal any faster…no. _No_ , Dad, I’m not—you _know_ that I know how important this job is—who said that? _Why_ the hell would I do that!?”

The voice on the other end was talking faster and louder. Thor was gripping his phone and his muscles were growing tenser with each passing second. Loki could faintly make out the words “your mother” from the other line, and Thor instantly deflated.

“Okay,” Thor said. “Okay, fine—I don’t know, maybe another month or so. I already have PT scheduled. Yeah…yeah. I will.” A long pause. Silence on both ends. Loki heard a heavy sigh from the phone.

“Okay. Talk to you later.” Thor ended the call and set his phone down on the end table. He leaned his head back and sighed heavily, staring up at the ceiling.

For a while, Loki didn’t say anything. After a minute or so, he managed to ask, “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, it’s just—well, never mind.” Thor ran his heavy hands through his hair. He reached for one of his hairbands on the table and absently tied his hair back. “It’s not important.”

“It sounded important.” Loki stared up at him, one eyebrow raised. “Is your dad an asshole all the time or was that a special treat?”

“He’s not exactly an asshole,” Thor explained with a sigh. “He just…wants me to do well.”

“Ah.” Loki sat up. “Well, when _my_ father ‘wants me to do well’, I usually get myself a few shots of vodka right after.”

Thor snorted and laughed. “Yeah…I know what you mean.”

Loki grinned, and there was another brief silence as he struggled to think of something reassuring to say. “Well,” he said, “I bet whatever he was saying was bullshit.”

“Eh,” Thor replied, but there was the hint of a blush on his cheeks. “He’s right, though. I do need to take my job more seriously.”

“How? By not having an accident?” Loki rolled his eyes. “Fuck him. Don’t even give a shit.”

“I have to, though. He owns the company.”

“…You _work_ for your dad?” Loki grimaced.

“Yeah.” Thor laughed, but there was no mirth in it. Such a sound had no business coming out of his mouth, and Loki frowned.

“The job I was on…” Thor continued, “it was the first one that my dad let me manage by myself. And it was for a really important client. If I did well on the project, my dad was going to give me a promotion and a raise. …But I was careless, and I was doing things too fast, and trying to impress my dad, and I just…fell off the scaffolding.” He laughed again, that fake, imposter laugh that Loki was growing to despise.

“Well,” Loki said, “you do have a tendency to rush into things without thinking. …But that’s not a bad thing about you.”

Thor looked at him curiously, but said nothing.

“In fact, your dad probably knows that about you. And he put a lot of pressure on you on purpose, to see how you’d handle it. When what he should have done was take the time to train you himself, instead of being fucking manipulative about it.”

Thor gazed down at his lap, contemplating. “Maybe. Who can say, really?”

Loki frowned again. Before he could stop to think about it, he reached forward and put his hand on the side of Thor’s face. Thor’s bright blue eyes flicked up just before Loki’s lips met his in a kiss. It was a deep, sweet kiss, Loki’s tongue sweeping into Thor’s mouth like he’d done it every single day of his life.

Loki pulled away, staring straight into Thor’s eyes, and said, “Ignore what he says. If he calls again I’ll answer the phone and tell him what you should have told him.”

“You can’t,” Thor replied, his eyes drooping, leaning back in for another kiss. “You’ll get me fired.”

“Then you’d have to stay here forever,” Loki said, kissing Thor back. He frowned. “On second thought, that might be horrible. Hand me the phone.”

Thor laughed, and this time it was genuine. Loki smiled. That was more like it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man I'm so tired of working on this chapter, and it's been long enough. So sorry for the long wait! Things got a little crazy in the last few months but I'm back to some sort of stability now.
> 
> So have some more boning idiots in love~

As much as Loki would have loved to stay in bed and make out with Thor all night, there was the increasingly pressing issue of food. More specifically, dinner, and what he was going to cook with their limited options. Normally Saturday would be Loki’s day to go grocery shopping, and he was so meticulous with his meal planning that he never bought more than he needed for one week.

Perhaps he should have seen this coming, what with having to feed Thor and the fact that he had known for a few days that they were supposed to get snow this weekend.

Loki carefully swung his leg over Thor’s lap, straddling him just as he had done on the couch earlier. “Are you hungry?”

“Depends on what you’re offering to eat,” Thor replied. A shit-eating grin spread across his face as he grabbed Loki’s ass with one wide hand.

Loki yelped, his face growing warm. He managed to turn the sound into a laugh, and he reached back to grab Thor’s wrist and pull his hand away.

“Let’s not get greedy,” he said, kissing Thor’s forehead. “I have to go see what I have in the kitchen. Provided _somebody_ hasn’t eaten it all.”

“Come on, do you have to?” Thor asked. He was still smiling, but there was something in his eyes, a little embarrassment, a little sadness….

Loki nodded. “I have to feed you.” He placed a hand on Thor’s chest and gently dragged his fingertips over a nipple. “Otherwise there’ll be nothing of you left.”

Thor sighed and gazed down at his lap. The hint of sadness Loki had seen earlier was full and real now, and he was struck with an instant of panic. _What in the fuck did I do now?_

Eventually, Thor looked up again, and he was smiling again. It wasn’t quite…it wasn’t quite right. Not entirely.

Thor’s hands were on Loki’s ass again, cautiously lifting up the robe and putting his palms on bare skin. He gripped gently, but with just enough force that Loki shuddered at the thought of Thor’s full strength handling him however he saw fit.

“How about,” Thor whispered, “we stay here for just a little bit longer. It’s just…would you mind?”

Loki blinked in confusion, but he quickly pushed the thought away. Thor was right here, beneath him, and _willing_. Emotions could be put aside for later. He nodded, his head suddenly feeling hazy.

A bit of the darkness faded from Thor’s eyes. He smiled—it looked better this time—and his hands grew bolder in their exploration. He grabbed Loki’s ass with both hands, kneading them gently and sending the blood straight to Loki’s dick. Loki moaned quietly through closed lips, and leaned in to kiss Thor again.

For all Loki cared, they could stay just like this forever. Who gave a shit about things like jobs, or money, or food…Loki didn’t want to be anywhere else, with anyone else, or doing anything else but this. It was only during his most vulnerable and foolish moments when he could admit that Thor was just about the only thing that gave him any happiness at all these days. And he didn’t even know why.

The very thought that Thor might not feel the same was the closest thing to despair that Loki would ever know.

He pressed himself closer into Thor, pushing his tongue deeper into Thor’s mouth. Thor’s hands continued their work, rough callouses scraping lightly against heated skin. Loki was struck with a hundred memories of how expertly Thor would work him open, even in the haze and blur of drunkenness, back in the hotel room they’d shared for countless nights.

Thor had always been so deft with his hands, so thoughtful in the way he would take utmost care of Loki, ensuring that nothing happened until Loki was prepared with precision. Loki would always remember, the next morning when he woke up, how badly he wished to be sober during that ritual. Just once.

But Thor was in no condition to fuck him now. Not the way he used to. And he probably wouldn’t be able to for a while longer.

Loki squirmed with anticipation as Thor’s fingers didn’t _quite_ go where he wanted them.

“Thor?” Loki asked, breaking away from the kiss.

“Yes?”

“What are you doing?”

“Appreciating this _amazing_ ass.”

“I know you have a stronger grip than that.”

Thor chuckled. “Loki, I don’t want to hurt you. And I don’t want to bruise you, either.”

“That’s never stopped you before.”

Thor winced, smiling guiltily. “Well…I never _meant_ to.”

“Do you think I can’t handle it, is that it?”

“Oh no, I know you can. I used to wreck your ass four or five times in one night and you didn’t even so much as limp the next morning.”

Loki scoffed and rolled his eyes, hoping it would distract from the blush creeping up his face. “Please,” he huffed quietly. “Whatever.”

Thor laughed again, with that same smug grin he would always greet Loki with in the bar. The smile that said he knew he was getting Loki into bed later in the night.

“You know,” Thor said, reaching up to gently grasp the side of Loki’s neck, “you really do drive me crazy when you blush like that. In a good way. …A really, really good way.”

“I can tell. Your ‘good way’ is stabbing me in the leg.”

Thor snorted. “I suppose it is.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, you probably think I’m insatiable.”

Loki huffed again, sighing heavily. He reached over to the nightstand and opened the drawer, pulling out a tiny bottle of lube and all but throwing it in Thor’s face.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Thor asked, squinting at the label.

“I know you’re high on painkillers, but come on.”

“No—you smartass—I mean I’m not exactly…able to…y’know.” Thor grabbed Loki’s hips and lifted him up ever so slightly. “Lift you.”

“You don’t have to do anything except sit there. I want to ride your dick, Thor. That thing’s been in my house for a week and it’s time it started making itself useful.”

“Oh…oh.” A sly smile spread across Thor’s face. “Well, why didn’t you just say so?” He popped open the bottle of lube and spread a generous amount over his palms and fingers. Once he was ready, he reached back and grasped the cheeks of Loki’s ass again.

“Don’t use it all, you asshole,” Loki snapped. “That’s my last bottle.”

“I’ll buy you more, baby. All you could ever want,” Thor replied, then leaned in to kiss him. His hands went to work.

Thor’s grip was strong and firm, teasing and slow. As his tongue worked its way into Loki’s mouth like he owned it, his hands massaged Loki’s asscheeks while his fingers, as of yet, made no move to his entrance. He spread the oily lube all over Loki’s skin, tingling and warming his hands as he did so. Loki had half a mind to tear his robe off to give Thor better access to any place he could want to touch, but there was something rather scandalous in the feeling of Thor reaching up under the cloth. It reminded him of one time when Thor tried to slip his hand down the back of Loki’s pants in the hotel elevator—right after another couple had entered the elevator with them.

Loki gripped Thor’s shoulder in one hand, the other reaching down to untuck the towel from around Thor’s waist. Thor’s fully erect cock sprung free, already leaking and impatient. Loki gently grasped it and dragged his fingertips up its length, part of him wondering if Thor would lube up his own dick and part of him hoping that he wouldn’t. Maybe it would be a tighter fit, but that was what Loki wanted just now. It didn’t matter if it hurt. Loki could take it.

Finally, Thor’s fingers began to move further in to the cleft of Loki’s ass, gently spreading him open and playing lightly at his entrance. Loki refused to moan, instead settling for a deep sigh into Thor’s mouth. He inched closer, further up Thor’s lap, eager to have Thor’s cock in him whether he was adequately prepared or not.

Thor laughed softly against his lips and pulled away for an instant. “So impatient,” he teased. “I’m not done with you yet.”

Loki frowned. “You know, you think that makes you sound so cool and mysterious—” and Loki absolutely loved it “—but it actually just makes you sound annoying.”

“Right.” Loki’s breath hitched as the calloused pad of Thor’s middle finger breached him— _finally_ —and Thor grinned like the smug bastard he was. Loki resisted pushing down further just to avoid giving Thor the satisfaction.

Thor reclaimed his spot on Loki’s mouth, his tongue shoving inside as he pushed his finger in deeper, and Loki’s body tensed, almost trembling. If only he could somehow will himself to open up for Thor. If only he didn’t have to go through this torturous waiting.

“Hurry up,” Loki heard himself whisper, breaking away from Thor’s lips to press kisses to his scruffy jawline. “Please….”

“Be patient, baby,” Thor replied, his other hand grabbing fistfuls of Loki’s ass.

“I’m not your _baby_ ,” Loki grunted sharply as Thor pushed another finger inside.

“Then why do you get harder every time I say it?” Thor pushed in deeper, harder, but not roughly.

“You’re a fucking asshole,” Loki snapped, pushing back onto Thor’s fingers.

“Yes, I _am_ fucking your asshole.”

“Oh my god shut _up_ —”

The third finger went in and Loki moaned, melting onto Thor’s chest. His cock was painfully erect, demanding release and attention but Loki ignored it. He was not going to come before he even got Thor’s dick in his ass. On certain nights, after too much to drink, Loki had a tendency to…be a bit premature. Thor always laughed, though not unkindly, and held him close and kissed him despite Loki’s protests and humiliated cursing. Loki had thought for sure, after the first time it happened, that Thor would never let him live it down and never want to see him again…and yet Thor never, ever teased him about it.

The stupid, thoughtful son of a bitch.

“Okay, you ready?” Thor asked, pressing soft kisses to Loki’s face.

“I’ve been waiting on _you_ ,” Loki bit back, wincing as Thor gently removed his fingers. He sat up on his knees, hands pressed firmly on Thor’s shoulders, and positioned himself above Thor’s cock. For an instant, Loki flicked his eyes up to Thor’s face, intending to hover for a moment and tease, intending to make Thor wait for it until Loki coaxed forth a crack in the frustratingly cool exterior…but one look at Thor’s eyes and Loki nearly lost his breath.

Thor was giving him that look again. The one that scared Loki more than anything else in the world. The one that said that this idiot was hopelessly, terribly, helplessly in love. With him. With Loki, who didn’t deserve it and never would, not even if he spent the rest of his life trying to.

Loki hated it, hated it almost as much as he hated himself, because he loved Thor too. He loved him enough to know that Thor shouldn’t be anywhere near him, loved him enough to know that he should get rid of him because Loki would only end up hurting him sooner rather than later.

But what Loki hated most of all was that he was selfish enough to keep him, despite all that.

Loki swallowed past a painful tightness in his throat and took in a deep breath. He sank down onto Thor’s cock in one smooth motion. Thor had expertly worked him open enough that he could just barely take it. Just the way Loki liked it. Loki didn’t even know how Thor could know such a thing.

But oh, how he had missed this. How he had missed the sensation, the connection, the warmth of Thor inside him. Even on the nights when he had almost blacked out from how drunk he was, there was nothing that could erase the memory of how good Thor felt.

Loki gasped out a small, tiny moan, and almost instantly Thor’s arms were around him, Thor’s lips were on his neck, biting with a ferocity he hadn’t displayed in months. Loki gasped again, tilted back his head, and exhaled a stuttering breath.

He grabbed at Thor’s arms, shoulder, neck, anything he could reach, lifted himself up and began to slowly fuck himself on Thor’s dick.

“Loki…Loki…Loki, so good, so good,” Thor rambled quietly, nipping all over Loki’s neck, ripping away the robe and sinking his teeth into his warm shoulder. He tried to snap his hips upward, only to cry out in sudden, sharp pain.

“Careful,” Loki said breathlessly, reaching down to place one palm gently on Thor’s cast. “Let me do the work, hon. Just relax, let me do it….”

“Can’t,” Thor replied, reaching back to grab Loki’s ass with both hands. “I can’t stop touching you—” he pressed a harsh kiss to the side of Loki’s neck, burying his face in it “—I don’t want to stop, not ever….”

“I got it, babe, I got it.” Loki pushed Thor off his shoulder and went in for a long, deep, slow kiss, one that lasted for days.

“I love you,” Thor broke away to say. “I’m sorry, but I love you.”

“We’ll talk about that later,” Loki replied, going in for another clumsy kiss, rubbing his lips raw on Thor’s beard and mustache.

Loki had done this many times, of course, but never with Thor, and any memory or knowledge of what to do was escaping him. Thor was not the first man he’d picked up at a bar for drunken sex. He was not even the first man Loki had had a crush on. Just like earlier today on the couch, it was like their first time all over again. Loki was so used to just letting Thor take control—he was such a damned natural at it, after all—that to have any power at all over what Thor’s cock did, to dictate anything about Thor being inside him….

He rocked his hips forward, one hand on Thor’s neck, the other stroking his stubbly face. Thor’s hands found their way back to Loki’s ass, and Loki sped up his movements, lifting himself up and letting himself fall back down onto Thor’s dick. In the back of his mind, he knew he had to be mindful of Thor’s cast, but as he worked himself open and drove himself deeper down, it was soon an altogether absent concern. The robe fell off his left shoulder as he pounded himself downward, and Thor reached up to claim the newly revealed skin in his hand.

Loki gasped into Thor’s mouth as finally, finally he found the right angle, just the right motion that sent a bolt of lightning up his spine.

Though he’d been still the whole time, Thor suddenly thrust his hips up, pushing himself in deeper and drawing forth a small whimper from Loki.

“Thor…” Loki said, going back in for another kiss, only to whine again, louder, his head falling forward to rest against Thor’s forehead. “Stop—stop moving….”

“I’m okay, Loki. Don’t worry about me.”

Loki lifted himself again and dropped down, over and over, stealing kisses when he could spare the breath. Thor’s hands had moved from Loki’s ass to his thighs and back again. His hands were so warm, his palms with the slightest sheen of sweat on them, and his calloused fingertips raising goosebumps on Loki’s skin. Each frenzied bounce loosened the robe from Loki’s body just a little more.

Loki soon found himself thrusting down onto Thor’s cock with reckless speed. Thor was biting and sucking the soft flesh between Loki’s neck and shoulder, one hand hooked under Loki’s knee, the one wrapped tightly around his waist, pulling him deeper and closer.

It was so hard to resist grinding his cock against Thor’s abs, he wanted to come just from riding him, but they were practically stuck together, and Thor’s body was so warm and so clean. Yet another part of him didn’t even want to finish, because eventually they’d have to come apart. He couldn’t stomach being separated from Thor in any capacity, not now.

The bedsprings were screeching as if they would snap as Loki thrust his whole weight down on Thor. He remembered the time when he and Thor had ripped the wallpaper in the hotel room from the repeated slamming of the headboard against the wall…and another time the front desk called to tell them the people in the next room over were complaining. The look of sheer horror on Thor’s face when Loki had told him that had been priceless.

“Loki, you’re killing me,” Thor groaned through sharp exhales. “You’re killing me, babe, oh m-my—God— _GOD_!”

Thor always was the screamer between the two of them. He slammed his hips upward into Loki, thrusting frantically to ride out every last wave of his finish. Loki drove down again, twisting his hips just right, just so….

His own climax was just as violent, just as biting and deep as he remembered. It tore through his whole body, ravaging his lungs, his veins, his shaking grip on Thor’s shoulders. He didn’t recall when Thor had grabbed his cock, but he was stroking him firmly and gently, letting him ride out the remains of the orgasm, bringing him down gently.

When it was finally done, Loki all but collapsed onto Thor’s chest. Thor’s arms wrapped around him, and he pressed a million of the sweetest kisses to Loki’s temple.

“The first thing I’m going to do when this cast comes off,” Thor said in between light nips at Loki’s ear, “is fuck you so hard that you’ll be the one who can’t walk.”

Loki snorted. “Are you now?”

“Mm-hmm.” Thor nuzzled into Loki’s neck. “Just wait until I get that ass under me again. Just you wait.” One hand traveled down to pull aside the bit of cloth covering Loki’s ass, and he grabbed it as he was always so fond of doing.

Loki realized now that he was still sitting here with Thor’s dick in his ass, but he was so tired he couldn’t be bothered to move. There was no other reason, of course.

“God, you have no idea how badly I want you under me right now, babe,” Thor continued, the scratch of his beard somewhat soothing against Loki’s neck. “You’ve been doing so much for me. I want to make you feel good too.”

_Just you being here makes me feel good._ “I’m going to hold you to that,” Loki said, resting his chin on Thor’s shoulder. “If I don’t get the best fuck of my life when your cast comes off, consider us over.”

Thor laughed and hugged Loki tight. “I personally guarantee it. Anything you want, just name it.”

“Anything, hmm?” _What if all I wanted was for you to stay? What if I don’t care about the sex at all as long as you stay and be my…._

He sat up and looked Thor in the eye. “How about this?” he said, reaching down to rub his thumb over Thor’s nipple. “How about…when your get out of your cast, we do the date thing over again.”

Thor’s face lit up. “Really?”

“Yeah. We’ll go on a real date. And I promise I’ll show up this time.”

“I’d like that.”

“And then…” Loki continued, averting his eyes from Thor’s face, “then we’ll just…come home and…do whatever.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this, a new chapter without a months-long gap in between? Turns out it gets written faster if I just commit to working on it, who knew?
> 
> In all seriousness, thank you guys for sticking with me even though the update schedule has been erratic. Your kind words brighten my day and you're a great bunch of people to write for! I'm glad that you're enjoying this silly story as much as I am. Please enjoy! :) <33

After prying himself away from Thor’s half-hearted attempts to restrain him for cuddles, Loki slipped into the bathroom in search of a washcloth. He dampened it, wiping down his sticky legs and chest and…god, it was everywhere. Afterward, he stepped back out to the bedroom and cleaned off Thor’s chest as well.

“This is much nicer than trash bags around my cast in the bathtub,” Thor murmured with a grin.

“Is it now?” Loki asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Well, don’t get used to it. Sponge baths were never part of the deal.” He tossed the washcloth into the hamper and adjusted the tie on his bathrobe. “I’m going to go start dinner.”

“What are we having?”

“Whatever I can find. Just put some clothes on before you come out here.”

\---

Although it wasn’t what he would have chosen, Loki found some pasta hidden away in the back of his cupboard. He had enough basic ingredients to put together a pasta sauce, and even enough white wine left over for him and Thor to have a glass. Mixing alcohol with Thor’s painkillers was probably not the greatest idea, but there was enough time in between doses that Loki wasn’t too concerned.

Already Loki was feeling…different. Happier, almost. No, not happier. Just more tolerant. He’d felt a pang of annoyance when Thor fed Mjolnir a can of tuna on the counter again, but not enough to say anything about it. After dinner, Loki had fussed at Thor to go sit down when the idiot insisted on helping clean up. Eventually, Loki scrubbed the dishes clean as he listened to the sound of Thor flipping through channels on the TV.

It was growing dark outside already. The wind kicked up a few times, but otherwise it was silent. Loki heard Thor stop on the weather forecast for a few minutes, where they were saying the worst of the storm had passed, but they still expected a few more inches before morning.

Once everything was clean in the kitchen, Loki checked the laundry and put on some proper pajamas. By the time he came back out to the living room, Thor had settled on some TV show that had been sitting in Loki’s Netflix queue for weeks.

“Hey, do you mind if we start this?” Thor asked as Loki sat down on the opposite end of the couch. “I’ve been wanting to see it too, but I didn’t want to get into it before you and have you seeing spoilers when you got home or anything.”

“That’s all right with me.”

Thor smirked and gestured for Loki to come closer. “Come on, you’re all the way down there.”

“I don’t have to be on top of you every hour of the day, Thor,” Loki replied, resting one elbow on the arm of the couch. “Honestly, you’re the neediest man I’ve ever met.”

“All right, all right.” Thor chuckled. “Fair point.”

Loki had heard that this show was good—he had been hearing about it from Clint for months—but he hadn’t expected to be quite so hooked by the end of the first episode. From the way Thor hastily grabbed the remote to expedite the changeover to the second episode, it seemed his attention had been grabbed too. They got through to the fifth episode almost instantly. Loki got up to make snacks in between the sixth and seventh. By the midpoint of episode ten, Loki had moved his way over to Thor and the two of them were covered in blankets and pillows arranged so oddly perfectly that neither of them could fathom moving.

It was quarter to midnight when they realized that they had gone and marathoned the entire first season.

“Wow, it’s late,” Thor said, cringing as he saw the clock.

“Don’t care,” Loki murmured, adjusting his position slightly. “Next season, now.”

“No, babe. I’m getting tired, and so are you.”

“Fuck you, I’m fine.”

“Really? How did this last episode start, then? I know you nodded off.”

“No. They were on the truck, right? The one where they found the body a few episodes back….”

Thor laughed. “Close enough. I still think it’s time for bed. You don’t want to mess up your sleep schedule, do you?”

“Like hell I’m getting to work on Monday anyway with all of this snow.”

“Still.” Thor brushed Loki’s hair away from his face. He wished he could lean down to kiss him but the angle wasn’t quite right. “You’re tired. You should rest.”

“I’m fine right here,” Loki mumbled.

_This is good for me too._ “Well that’s fine but I’m not. My leg’s been asleep for an hour.”

Loki huffed and sat up, being sure to groan on the way up. “Whatever,” he said with a yawn. He reached out and took hold of Thor’s hand. “Come on, then.”

Thor raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

“If you want to sleep on the couch so bad just say so.” Loki narrowed his eyes and tried his best to look put off.

“I—no, not really.” Thor smiled that stupid smile that made Loki turn away to conceal his blush.

“Then come on. I’ll clean all this up in the morning.”

\---

Loki was asleep almost instantly by the time he hit the pillow. He’d helped Thor into bed, and Thor had had to resist giggling at the sleepy, slightly tipsy way Loki moved around the room. Although Loki was already fast asleep, Thor was wide awake. He laid beside Loki and just…looked at him. Watched him sleep, like he used to do in the hotel room.

Way back then, he hadn’t even dreamed of knowing Loki’s last name, much less a single thing about him past what he liked in bed. But the more he saw him, the more the nagging curiosity turned into fascination.

The first time had been a fluke. Just a whim, a fleeting moment of risk. Thor had never had trouble getting anybody into bed with him. He had no reason to expect that Loki would be any different.

But then Loki had turned out to be different. Thor was good with people. He was comfortable with them, he knew how to listen, how to talk, how to feel out who somebody was. He thought he knew Loki from the first time he saw him. A shrewd, quiet businessman, young enough to have an ego but experienced enough to know that he really was, in several ways, better than you.

And just so damn cute, besides.

It wasn’t until they were in bed together that Loki took him by surprise. Bit by bit, little by little, Loki came…undone. Everything about him disappeared and melted away when Thor was on top of him. Everybody was like that in some way in the middle of a good fuck, but Loki…he would never show this side of him to anybody if he could help it. It was just the _level_ of intimate exposure that Thor witnessed, or somehow drew out of him, that entangled his heart and refused to let go.

He didn’t remember all of it. They’d both been _so_ drunk. But he recalled pieces. He remembered when they came into the room, fumbling for the light switch, and then lifting Loki up in his arms and grinding hard against him as he shoved him up against the wall.

Loki had laughed, and complained he was wearing an expensive suit, and if Thor made him come in them he’d send him the dry cleaning bill. For some reason, that had been hilarious to them both.

Even drunk, Thor always tried to keep his wits about him as best he could. He’d tried to be a gentleman and help Loki out of his clothes, especially since buttons were far too difficult for him just then. That was the first time he noticed Loki’s hands. Slender, pale, strong hands…masculine and feminine all at once.

The rest was hazy fragments, nothing notable. Just two drunk idiots fumbling around a hotel room, trying to figure out what they were doing like they were virgins all over again. But once Thor did figure out what Loki liked— _exactly_ what Loki liked—oh, then it all fell into place perfectly from that moment.

And that’s when it happened. Loki was beneath him, and Thor was fucking him, hips moving in a tight rhythm and the bed creaking, almost worryingly so. The pitch of Loki’s frantic exhales grew higher and more helpless. His head had fallen to the side, eyes shut tight, his hands reaching up to grab the sweat-soaked pillow, his slender, taut torso arching up so tightly he couldn’t have relaxed if he’d wanted to.

For the first time, Thor wondered if he was hurting him. He made himself slow down, gradually of course, and once his motions became slow, even thrusts, he reached out and gently touched the side of Loki’s face.

“Hey,” Thor asked softly. “Are you okay?”

Loki blinked, as if waking, then turned his head and looked Thor in the eye. For a moment it was silent, and Thor wondered if Loki even remembered who he was.

“…What?” Loki eventually whispered.

“Do you want to…keep going?”

“What?” Loki asked again. “Why would you—don’t you like me?”

“I do! Of course I do. I’m here, aren’t I?” Thor smiled.

“Nobody likes me,” Loki replied miserably. “They all leave. Or I do. …Are you going to leave me?”

“No, no, of course not, right now I’m going to make you feel good. Do you feel good?”

Loki breathed unevenly, then nodded. “I do. …I really do.” He paused. “…Do you?”

Thor grinned. “Yeah. I feel fucking amazing.”

Loki sighed, turning his head back to the side again. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, his voice small and not at all his own. “I’m such a mess. I’m in…a hotel. Drunk. With a stranger.”

“It’s okay. We’re not hurting each other.”

Loki took in a short breath and exhaled. “I really want you to like me,” he said, quieter than ever. “I want you to like me so much that you want to fuck me all the time.”

Thor hadn’t been able to resist laughing at that. “You’re just saying that because you’re blackout drunk.”

“I just want somebody to like me that much.” It didn’t sound like Loki meant any humor by it.

Thor jumped as Loki grabbed his hips beneath the sheets. Loki turned his head again and looked up.

“Would you please fuck me…like that?” Loki asked quietly, his words growing more and more slurred.

“…Yeah. I would love to do that for you, Loki.”

“Okay, then…then go. Keep going.” Loki swallowed and laid his head back to the side. It almost looked like he’d fallen asleep. But the way his breath caught against Thor’s rapidly increasing thrusts said otherwise.

It wasn’t much longer that Loki cried out in what sounded terrifyingly like a sob, and Thor was gripped with fear that oh shit, he really had taken advantage of this stranger and he was going to get so fucking arrested—

“Again,” Loki had said, reaching up and gently grabbing a handful of Thor’s hair. “Again, please.”

Thor lost track of how much longer they had gone on, only that he had fallen asleep after one of his orgasms, and when he awoke in the morning Loki was gone.

\---

Thor awoke in the morning and Loki was still there, sleeping on his stomach, his arms curled up underneath his pillow. Well, of course he’d still be there, it was his own bed after all…and yet it filled Thor with such elation. It was always very rare for Loki to still be there in the mornings, and when he was, Thor had always pretended to be asleep as he listened to him wake up, gather his things, and leave.

Thor winced as he adjusted his position. His leg was throbbing with a bone deep pain that he hadn’t felt before. Perhaps it was protesting the exertion he’d put it through yesterday. Maybe it was in that painful stage of healing. Either way, Thor wanted it to calm down soon so he wouldn’t have to wake Loki up to ask for his painkillers.

As luck would have it, Loki awoke shortly. It started with a slight change in his breathing, then a deep inhale, a soft exhale…and he opened his eyes. He focused almost immediately on Thor, and Thor caught the faintest ghost of a smile before Loki forced his expression into a frown.

“What are you doing here?” Loki asked. Thor couldn’t tell if he was bullshitting or what.

“Not a whole hell of a lot, really,” replied Thor. He reached over and pushed stray strands of hair out of Loki’s eyes. “Good morning, babe.”

Loki groaned and shut his eyes, dramatically shoving his face into his pillow. After a few moments, during which Thor never stopped running his fingers through the ragged mess of Loki’s hair, Loki looked up again.

“Good morning.”

Thor smiled, stifling back a laugh. They laid in dreamy silence for a little while longer.

“Well,” Loki said, “this is all very domestic, isn’t it?”

“Is that what you call this? I’m afraid I’m somewhat unfamiliar.”

“Mmm.” Loki grinned. He freed one arm from beneath the pillow and took hold of Thor’s hand, intertwining their fingers limply. “I think I can see the appeal of this.”

“We can stay here all day if you want. Like you said, you probably won’t have to go in to work tomorrow.”

“Just because I don’t go in doesn’t mean I don’t still work,” Loki sighed.

“True, I suppose. So I guess we’ll have to make the most of today while I still have you all to myself.”

“Not in the way I know you’re thinking.”

Thor pretended to look hurt. “Loki! Do you really think that’s all I think about?”

Loki made a noncommittal sound. “Maybe if you behave today we can try something new.”

“Something new?” Thor perked up.

“It’d be a surprise. But only if you earn it.”

“Anything you say, babe. Ah…sorry.” Thor winced. “Forgot you don’t like that.”

“…Eh. It doesn’t really bother me anymore.”


End file.
